WaldevswideWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Walde is a name, wide is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Walde” is a name and “wide” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,990
“Walde” frequency rank
#20,128
“wide” frequency rank
45118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Walde wide
Definition deutschsprachiger Familienname, Nachname von großer Ausdehnung

Where the eye mixes Walde and wide

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Walde
4 ch
wide

Why the eye confuses Walde with wide

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Walde is [ˈvaldə] while wide is [waɪd]. 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 (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Walde is recorded at frequency rank #24,990, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈvaldə]. wide is at rank #20,128, tagged as anadj, pronounced [waɪd].

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 45118, this pair ranks #1,363,907 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Walde vs wide

Shared letters: dew. Private to "Walde": al. Private to "wide": i.

"Walde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "wide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Waldeawlde · wadle · waldde · waled · wallde · wlade · wwalde
  • wideiwde · wdie · widde · wwide

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Walde" and "wide" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Walde" is a name and "wide" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Walde" or "wide" show up more?
"wide" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,128 in our German list, against #24,990 for "Walde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Walde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,363,907 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Walde" and "wide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Walde 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 #1,363,907 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