WaldvsweedTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,342
“Wald” frequency rank
#28,017
“weed” frequency rank
29359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wald weed
Definition größere von Bäumen dicht bewachsene Fläche Gras, Unkraut

Where the eye mixes Wald and weed

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Wald
4 ch
weed

Look-alike desk: Wald vs weed

A purely visual mix-up. Wald ([valt]) and weed ([wiːd]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wald is recorded at frequency rank #1,342, classified as anoun, pronounced [valt]. weed is at rank #28,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced [wiːd].

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 29359, this pair ranks #1,768,245 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wald vs weed

Shared letters: dw. Private to "Wald": al. Private to "weed": e.

"Wald" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "weed" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Waldawld · wadl · waldd · walld · wlad · wwald
  • weedewed · wed · wede · weedd · wweed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Wald" for "weed" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([valt] versus [wiːd]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Wald" or "weed"?
"Wald" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,342 in our German list, against #28,017 for "weed". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "Wald" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,768,245 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wald" and "weed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weed vs went". 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 #1,768,245 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