GewürzvsGewürzenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Gewürz” and “Gewürzen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,776
“Gewürz” frequency rank
#31,075
“Gewürzen” frequency rank
69851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gewürz Gewürzen
Definition Pflanzenteile (besonders von Kräutern), die gemahlen oder ganz einer Speise beigemengt werden, um ihren Geschmack zu verbessern Dativ Plural des Substantivs Gewürz

Where the eye mixes Gewürz and Gewürzen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Gewürz runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against Gewürzen's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Gewürz
8 ch
Gewürzen

Why the eye confuses Gewürz with Gewürzen

A purely visual mix-up. Gewürz ([ɡəˈvʏʁt͡s]) and Gewürzen ([ɡəˈvʏʁt͡sn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Gewürz” sits inside “Gewürzen”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Gewürz is recorded at frequency rank #38,776, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈvʏʁt͡s]. Gewürzen is at rank #31,075, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɡəˈvʏʁt͡sn̩].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 69851, this pair ranks #464,049 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Gewürz vs Gewürzen

Shared letters: egrwzü. Private to "Gewürz": -. Private to "Gewürzen": n.

"Gewürz" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Gewürzen" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Gewürz" and "Gewürzen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ɡəˈvʏʁt͡s] versus [ɡəˈvʏʁt͡sn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Gewürz" or "Gewürzen" show up more?
"Gewürzen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,075 in our German list, against #38,776 for "Gewürz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gewürz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Gewürzen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #464,049 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gewürz" and "Gewürzen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Gewürz vs gewürzt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #464,049 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list