wagtvsWatteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#10,398
“wagt” frequency rank
#39,136
“Watte” frequency rank
49534
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wagt Watte
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs wagen lockeres Gefüge aus einzelnen Textilfasern

Where the eye mixes wagt and Watte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. wagt runs 4 letters (CVCC) against Watte's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
wagt
5 ch
Watte

Visual trap between wagt and Watte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wagt is [vaːkt] while Watte is [ˈvatə]. 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 49534, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wagt is recorded at frequency rank #10,398, classified as averb, pronounced [vaːkt]. Watte is at rank #39,136, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvatə].

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 49534, this pair ranks #1,207,904 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wagt vs Watte

Shared letters: atw. Private to "wagt": g. Private to "Watte": e.

"wagt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Watte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wagtawgt · waggt · wagtt · watg · wgat · wwagt
  • Watteawtte · wate · watet · wtate · wwatte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wagt" for "Watte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wagt" is a verb and "Watte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wagt" or "Watte"?
"wagt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,398 in our German list, against #39,136 for "Watte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wagt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Watte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,207,904 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wagt" and "Watte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waste vs Watte". 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 #1,207,904 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