powersvswarsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#33,236
“powers” frequency rank
#3,861
“wars” frequency rank
37097
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature powers wars
Definition Plural des Substantivs power 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs war

Letter map: powers vs wars

Shared letters muted; letters that set powers and wars apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

6 ch
powers
4 ch
wars

Role in the sentence - powers and wars

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: powers is anoun and warsaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37097, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

powers is recorded at frequency rank #33,236, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. wars is at rank #3,861, 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 37097, this pair ranks #1,598,875 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of powers vs wars

Shared letters: rsw. Private to "powers": eop. Private to "wars": a.

"powers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "wars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • powersopwers · poewrs · powerrs · powerss · powesr · powres · powwers · ppowers
  • warsawrs · warrs · warss · wasr · wras · wwars

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "powers" and "wars" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "powers" is a noun and "wars" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "powers" or "wars"?
"wars" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,861 in our German list, against #33,236 for "powers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "powers" and "wars". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "powers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wars" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,598,875 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "powers" and "wars" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "powers 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 #1,598,875 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