Which to use
“water” is a noun and “waters” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,830
- “water” frequency rank
- #36,115
- “waters” frequency rank
- 48945
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | water | waters |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | das Wasser | Plural des Substantives water |
Letter map: water vs waters
Shared letters muted; letters that set water and waters apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Grammar separator: water vs waters
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: water is anoun and watersanunknown. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “water” sits inside “waters”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
water is recorded at frequency rank #12,830, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈwɔːtə]. waters is at rank #36,115, tagged as anunknown, pronounced […].
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 48945, this pair ranks #1,229,739 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of water vs waters
Shared letters: aertw. Private to "water": -. Private to "waters": s.
"water" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "waters" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "water" for "waters" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "water" or "waters" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "water" vs "waters" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "water" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "waters" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,229,739 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "water" and "waters" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs waters". 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 #1,229,739 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.