Which to use
“war” is a verb and “WLAN” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39
- “war” frequency rank
- #4,087
- “WLAN” frequency rank
- 4126
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | war | WLAN |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum des Verbs sein | drahtloses lokales Computernetzwerk |
Where the eye mixes war and WLAN
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses war with WLAN
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: war is [vaːɐ̯] while WLAN is [ˈveːlaːn]. 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 abbrev), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
war is recorded at frequency rank #39, classified as averb, pronounced [vaːɐ̯]. WLAN is at rank #4,087, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [ˈveːlaːn].
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 4126, this pair ranks #1,998,518 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of war vs WLAN
Shared letters: aw. Private to "war": r. Private to "WLAN": ln.
"war" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "WLAN" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- WLAN ← lwan · waln · wlann · wllan · wlna · wwlan
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "war" for "WLAN" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "war" or "WLAN" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "war" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "WLAN" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,998,518 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "war" and "WLAN" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "WLAN vs Wotan". 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 #1,998,518 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.