WachsvswachtConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#15,790
“Wachs” frequency rank
#10,011
“wacht” frequency rank
25801
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wachs wacht
Definition Ester aus Fettsäuren und langkettigen Alkoholen 2. Person Plural Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wachen

Where the eye mixes Wachs and wacht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Wachs
5 ch
wacht

Visual trap between Wachs and wacht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wachs is [vaks] while wacht is [vaxt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “Wachs” becomes t in “wacht”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25801, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wachs is recorded at frequency rank #15,790, classified as anoun, pronounced [vaks]. wacht is at rank #10,011, tagged as averb, pronounced [vaxt].

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 25801, this pair ranks #1,827,784 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wachs vs wacht

Shared letters: achw. Private to "Wachs": s. Private to "wacht": t.

"Wachs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "wacht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wachsawchs · wacchs · wachhs · wachss · wacsh · wahcs · wcahs · wwachs
  • wachtawcht · waccht · wachht · wachtt · wahct · wcaht · wwacht

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Wachs" and "wacht" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wachs" is a noun and "wacht" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Wachs" vs "wacht" - which ranks higher?
"wacht" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,011 in our German list, against #15,790 for "Wachs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Wachs" and "wacht" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wachs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wacht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,827,784 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wachs" and "wacht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wachs vs Wracks". 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 #1,827,784 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