GewürzvsgewürztTell them apart

Quick tell: Gewürz is a noun, gewürzt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Gewürz” is a noun and “gewürzt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,776
“Gewürz” frequency rank
#33,607
“gewürzt” frequency rank
72383
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Gewürz gewürzt
Definition Pflanzenteile (besonders von Kräutern), die gemahlen oder ganz einer Speise beigemengt werden, um ihren Geschmack zu verbessern Partizip Perfekt des Verbs würzen

Where the eye mixes Gewürz and gewürzt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. Gewürz runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against gewürzt's 7 (CVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Gewürz
7 ch
gewürzt

Visual trap between Gewürz and gewürzt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Gewürz is [ɡəˈvʏʁt͡s] while gewürzt is [ɡəˈvʏʁt͡st]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Gewürz” sits inside “gewürzt”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72383, 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]. gewürzt is at rank #33,607, tagged as averb, pronounced [ɡəˈvʏʁt͡st].

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 72383, this pair ranks #389,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Gewürz vs gewürzt

Shared letters: egrwzü. Private to "Gewürz": -. Private to "gewürzt": t.

"Gewürz" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "gewürzt" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Gewürz" and "gewürzt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Gewürz" is a noun and "gewürzt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Gewürz" or "gewürzt"?
"gewürzt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,607 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Gewürz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gewürzt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,912 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Gewürz" and "gewürzt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gekürzte vs gewürzt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #389,912 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