warfvswordWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,666
“warf” frequency rank
#8,661
“word” frequency rank
13327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature warf word
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs werfen kleinste selbstständige bedeutungstragende Einheit der Sprache

Where the eye mixes warf and word

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. warf and word follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
warf
4 ch
word

Visual trap between warf and word

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: warf is [vaʁf] while word is [wɜːd]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

warf is recorded at frequency rank #4,666, classified as averb, pronounced [vaʁf]. word is at rank #8,661, tagged as anoun, pronounced [wɜːd].

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 13327, this pair ranks #1,958,691 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of warf vs word

Shared letters: rw. Private to "warf": af. Private to "word": do.

"warf" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "word" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • warf ← awrf · wafr · warff · warrf · wraf · wwarf
  • word ← owrd · wodr · wordd · worrd · wrod · wword

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "warf" and "word" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "warf" is a verb and "word" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "warf" vs "word" - which ranks higher?
"warf" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,666 in our German list, against #8,661 for "word". 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 "warf" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "word" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,958,691 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "warf" and "word" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Werds vs word". 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 #1,958,691 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