WasservswaterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Wasser” and “water” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#415
“Wasser” frequency rank
#12,830
“water” frequency rank
13245
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wasser water
Definition die chemische Verbindung (Diwasserstoffoxid), der Stoff H₂O in flüssigem Aggregatzustand, die aus Wasserstoff und Sauerstoff zusammengesetzt ist das Wasser

Where the eye mixes Wasser and water

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Wasser
5 ch
water

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. Wasser ([ˈvasɐ]) and water ([ˈwɔːtə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wasser is recorded at frequency rank #415, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvasɐ]. water is at rank #12,830, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈwɔːtə].

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 13245, this pair ranks #1,959,176 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wasser vs water

Shared letters: aerw. Private to "Wasser": s. Private to "water": t.

"Wasser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "water" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wasserawsser · waser · wasesr · wasserr · wassre · waßer · wsaser · wwasser
  • waterawter · waetr · waterr · watter · wtaer · wwater

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wasser" and "water" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvasɐ] versus [ˈwɔːtə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Wasser" or "water"?
"Wasser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #415 in our German list, against #12,830 for "water". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "Wasser" and "water". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wasser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "water" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,959,176 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wasser" and "water" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "water vs writer". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list