walevsWalzWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,369
“wale” frequency rank
#33,902
“Walz” frequency rank
57271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wale Walz
Definition Rippe, Salleiste, feste Webkante Wanderschaft, auf die sich Handwerksgesellen nach der Ausbildung traditionell begeben

Letter map: wale vs Walz

Shared letters muted; letters that set wale and Walz apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. wale (CVCV) and Walz (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
wale
4 ch
Walz

Corpus notes: wale and Walz

wale and Walz are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - e in “wale” becomes z in “Walz”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wale is recorded at frequency rank #23,369, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Walz is at rank #33,902, tagged as anoun, pronounced [valt͡s].

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 57271, this pair ranks #907,811 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wale vs Walz

Shared letters: alw. Private to "wale": e. Private to "Walz": z.

"wale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Walz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wale ← awle · wael · walle · wlae · wwale
  • Walz ← awlz · wallz · walzz · wazl · wlaz · wwalz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wale" and "Walz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - e in “wale” becomes z in “Walz”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "wale" or "Walz" show up more?
"wale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,369 in our German list, against #33,902 for "Walz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "wale" and "Walz". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Walz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #907,811 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wale" and "Walz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Walz vs Weiz". 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 #907,811 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