walkvswaltzTell them apart

Quick tell: walk is a verb, waltz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“walk” is a verb and “waltz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,631
“walk” frequency rank
#35,544
“waltz” frequency rank
48175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature walk waltz
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs walken langsamer Gesellschaftstanz im Dreivierteltakt; English Waltz, langsamer Walzer

Where the eye mixes walk and waltz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. walk runs 4 letters (CVCC) against waltz's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
walk
5 ch
waltz

Visual trap between walk and waltz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: walk is [valk] while waltz is [valt͡s]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

walk is recorded at frequency rank #12,631, classified as averb, pronounced [valk]. waltz is at rank #35,544, 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 48175, this pair ranks #1,258,100 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of walk vs waltz

Shared letters: alw. Private to "walk": k. Private to "waltz": tz.

"walk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "waltz" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • walk ← awlk · wakl · walkk · wallk · wlak · wwalk
  • waltz ← awltz · walltz · walttz · waltzz · walzt · watlz · wlatz · wwaltz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "walk" and "waltz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "walk" is a verb and "waltz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "walk" or "waltz" show up more?
"walk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,631 in our German list, against #35,544 for "waltz". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "walk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "waltz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,258,100 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "walk" and "waltz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waltz 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 #1,258,100 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