Which to use
“wage” and “war” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,358
- “wage” frequency rank
- #39
- “war” frequency rank
- 11397
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wage | war |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wagen | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum des Verbs sein |
Where the eye mixes wage and war
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses wage with war
A purely visual mix-up. wage ([ˈvaːɡə]) and war ([vaːɐ̯]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11397, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wage is recorded at frequency rank #11,358, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaːɡə]. war is at rank #39, tagged as averb, pronounced [vaːɐ̯].
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 11397, this pair ranks #1,970,090 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wage vs war
Shared letters: aw. Private to "wage": eg. Private to "war": r.
"wage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "war" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- wage ← awge · waeg · wagge · wgae · wwage
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wage" for "war" ever safe?
Frequency check: "wage" vs "war" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "wage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "war" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,970,090 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wage" and "war" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wage vs waste". 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 #1,970,090 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.