wahrvswahrerTell them apart

Which to use

“wahr” and “wahrer” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,376
“wahr” frequency rank
#8,654
“wahrer” frequency rank
10030
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wahr wahrer
Definition der Wahrheit, Wirklichkeit, den Tatsachen entsprechend; wirklich geschehen, nicht ausgedacht oder erfunden Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs wahr

Where the eye mixes wahr and wahrer

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

4 ch
wahr
6 ch
wahrer

Look-alike desk: wahr vs wahrer

A purely visual mix-up. wahr ([vaːɐ̯]) and wahrer ([ˈvaːʁɐ]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “wahr” sits inside “wahrer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10030, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wahr is recorded at frequency rank #1,376, classified as anadj, pronounced [vaːɐ̯]. wahrer is at rank #8,654, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaːʁɐ].

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 10030, this pair ranks #1,977,121 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wahr vs wahrer

Shared letters: ahrw. Private to "wahr": -. Private to "wahrer": e.

"wahr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wahrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wahrawhr · wahhr · wahrr · warh · whar · wwahr
  • wahrerawhrer · waherr · wahhrer · wahrerr · wahrrer · warher · wharer · wwahrer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wahr" and "wahrer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([vaːɐ̯] versus [ˈvaːʁɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "wahr" vs "wahrer" - which ranks higher?
"wahr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,376 in our German list, against #8,654 for "wahrer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wahr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wahrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,977,121 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wahr" and "wahrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wahrer vs währte". 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 #1,977,121 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