wächstvsWichtWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,751
“wächst” frequency rank
#42,950
“Wicht” frequency rank
45701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wächst Wicht
Definition 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wachsen kleine Sagengestalt, die gute Dinge verrichtet

Where the eye mixes wächst and Wicht

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wächst runs 6 letters (CVCCCC) against Wicht's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
wächst
5 ch
Wicht

Why the eye confuses wächst with Wicht

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wächst is [vɛkst] while Wicht is [vɪçt]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wächst is recorded at frequency rank #2,751, classified as averb, pronounced [vɛkst]. Wicht is at rank #42,950, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vɪçt].

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 45701, this pair ranks #1,344,100 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wächst vs Wicht

Shared letters: chtw. Private to "wächst": sä. Private to "Wicht": i.

"wächst" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC  ·  "Wicht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wicht ← iwcht · wciht · wiccht · wichht · wichtt · wicth · wihct · wwicht

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wächst" for "Wicht" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wächst" is a verb and "Wicht" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "wächst" or "Wicht" show up more?
"wächst" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,751 in our German list, against #42,950 for "Wicht". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wächst" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wicht" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,344,100 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wächst" and "Wicht" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wicht 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 #1,344,100 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