WalzevswürzeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#39,133
“Walze” frequency rank
#28,953
“würze” frequency rank
68086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Walze würze
Definition runder und sehr breiter, sehr schwerer Maschinenteil der Dampfwalze oder Straßenwalze, der vorn angenietet wird und dessen Einsatz im Straßenbau vorkommt, um Kies und andere kleine Steine zu zerdrücken und so die Oberfläche zu glätten 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs würzen

Where the eye mixes Walze and würze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Walze and würze follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Walze
5 ch
würze

Why the eye confuses Walze with würze

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Walze is [ˈvalt͡sə] while würze is [ˈvʏʁt͡sə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Walze is recorded at frequency rank #39,133, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvalt͡sə]. würze is at rank #28,953, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvʏʁt͡sə].

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 68086, this pair ranks #519,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Walze vs würze

Shared letters: ewz. Private to "Walze": al. Private to "würze": rü.

"Walze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "würze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Walze ← awlze · walez · wallze · walzze · wazle · wlaze · wwalze

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Walze" for "würze" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Walze" is a noun and "würze" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Walze" or "würze"?
"würze" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,953 in our German list, against #39,133 for "Walze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Walze" and "würze" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Walze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "würze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #519,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Walze" and "würze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Walze 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 #519,174 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