waschvswuschWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wasch is a verb, wusch is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wasch” is a verb and “wusch” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,959
“wasch” frequency rank
#43,645
“wusch” frequency rank
66604
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wasch wusch
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs waschen schneller als erwartet, ehe man sich versieht

Where the eye mixes wasch and wusch

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wasch and wusch follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
wasch
5 ch
wusch

Look-alike desk: wasch vs wusch

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wasch is [vaʃ] while wusch is [vʊʃ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “wasch” becomes u in “wusch”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66604, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wasch is recorded at frequency rank #22,959, classified as averb, pronounced [vaʃ]. wusch is at rank #43,645, tagged as anintj, pronounced [vʊʃ].

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 66604, this pair ranks #567,641 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wasch vs wusch

Shared letters: chsw. Private to "wasch": a. Private to "wusch": u.

"wasch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "wusch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wasch ← awsch · wascch · waschh · washc · wassch · wsach · wwasch
  • wusch ← uwsch · wsuch · wuscch · wuschh · wushc · wussch · wwusch

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wasch" and "wusch" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wasch" is a verb and "wusch" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wasch" vs "wusch" - which ranks higher?
"wasch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,959 in our German list, against #43,645 for "wusch". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wasch" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wusch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #567,641 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wasch" and "wusch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "witch vs wusch". 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 #567,641 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