golemvswellsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#32,572
“golem” frequency rank
#17,186
“wells” frequency rank
49758
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature golem wells
Definition Golem 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs well

Letter map: golem vs wells

Shared letters muted; letters that set golem and wells apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. golem (CVCVC) and wells (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
golem
5 ch
wells

Role in the sentence - golem and wells

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: golem is anoun and wellsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

golem is recorded at frequency rank #32,572, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. wells is at rank #17,186, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 49758, this pair ranks #1,199,469 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of golem vs wells

Shared letters: el. Private to "golem": gmo. Private to "wells": sw.

"golem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "wells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • golem ← ggolem · gloem · goelm · golemm · gollem · golme · oglem
  • wells ← ewlls · wellss · welsl · wlels · wwells

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "golem" and "wells" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "golem" is a noun and "wells" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "golem" or "wells" show up more?
"wells" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,186 in our German list, against #32,572 for "golem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "golem" and "wells".

  • Full dictionary entry for "golem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wells" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,199,469 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "golem" and "wells" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "golem vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,199,469 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