Which to use
“Wake” is a noun and “welke” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,014
- “Wake” frequency rank
- #47,128
- “welke” frequency rank
- 75142
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Wake | welke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | natürliche Öffnung in der Eisdecke, zumeist eines Flusses oder Sees, die zuweilen auch zeitweise oberflächlich leicht zufrieren kann | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs welk |
Where the eye mixes Wake and welke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Wake runs 4 letters (CVCV) against welke's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses Wake with welke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wake is [ˈvaːkə] while welke is [ˈvɛlkə]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75142, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Wake is recorded at frequency rank #28,014, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvaːkə]. welke is at rank #47,128, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvɛlkə].
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 75142, this pair ranks #315,451 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Wake vs welke
Shared letters: ekw. Private to "Wake": a. Private to "welke": l.
"Wake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "welke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Wake" and "welke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "Wake" vs "welke" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "Wake" and "welke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Wake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "welke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #315,451 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Wake" and "welke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wehte vs welke". 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 #315,451 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.