vespavsvesperTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#36,715
“vespa” frequency rank
#31,863
“vesper” frequency rank
68578
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vespa vesper
Definition die Wespe 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs vespern

Letter map: vespa vs vesper

Shared letters muted; letters that set vespa and vesper apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
vespa
6 ch
vesper

Role in the sentence - vespa and vesper

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: vespa is anoun and vesperaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vespa is recorded at frequency rank #36,715, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. vesper is at rank #31,863, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈfɛspɐ].

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 68578, this pair ranks #503,385 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vespa vs vesper

Shared letters: epsv. Private to "vespa": a. Private to "vesper": r.

"vespa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "vesper" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vespaevspa · vepsa · vesap · vesppa · vesspa · vsepa · vvespa
  • vesperevsper · vepser · vesepr · vesperr · vespper · vespre · vessper · vseper

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vespa" for "vesper" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vespa" is a noun and "vesper" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vespa" or "vesper"?
"vesper" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,863 in our German list, against #36,715 for "vespa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "vespa" and "vesper". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vespa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vesper" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #503,385 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vespa" and "vesper" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs vespa". 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 #503,385 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