wachvswitchWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wach is a adjective, witch is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wach” is an adjective and “witch” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,867
“wach” frequency rank
#47,136
“witch” frequency rank
50003
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wach witch
Definition nicht schlafend, bereits aus dem Schlaf erwacht oder noch nicht eingeschlafen Hexe

Where the eye mixes wach and witch

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
wach
5 ch
witch

Visual trap between wach and witch

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wach is [vax] while witch is [wɪt͡ʃ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50003, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wach is recorded at frequency rank #2,867, classified as anadj, pronounced [vax]. witch is at rank #47,136, tagged as anoun, pronounced [wɪt͡ʃ].

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 50003, this pair ranks #1,190,228 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wach vs witch

Shared letters: chw. Private to "wach": a. Private to "witch": it.

"wach" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "witch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wachawch · wacch · wachh · wahc · wcah · wwach
  • witchiwtch · witcch · witchh · withc · wittch · wtich · wwitch

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wach" and "witch" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wach" is an adjective and "witch" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wach" vs "witch" - which ranks higher?
"wach" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,867 in our German list, against #47,136 for "witch". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "witch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,190,228 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wach" and "witch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wit vs witch". 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 #1,190,228 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