weathervsWetterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,363
“weather” frequency rank
#1,496
“Wetter” frequency rank
32859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weather Wetter
Definition Wetter aktueller Zustand der Atmosphäre an einem bestimmten Ort und zu einer bestimmten Zeit

Where the eye mixes weather and Wetter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. weather runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against Wetter's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
weather
6 ch
Wetter

Visual trap between weather and Wetter

A purely visual mix-up. weather ([ˈwɛðə]) and Wetter ([ˈvɛtɐ]) 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 32859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weather is recorded at frequency rank #31,363, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈwɛðə]. Wetter is at rank #1,496, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɛtɐ].

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 32859, this pair ranks #1,698,487 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of weather vs Wetter

Shared letters: ertw. Private to "weather": ah. Private to "Wetter": -.

"weather" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "Wetter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weather ← ewather · waether · weahter · weatehr · weatherr · weathher · weathre · weatther
  • Wetter ← ewtter · weter · wetetr · wetterr · wettre · wteter · wwetter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "weather" and "Wetter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈwɛðə] versus [ˈvɛtɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "weather" or "Wetter"?
"Wetter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,496 in our German list, against #31,363 for "weather". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "weather" and "Wetter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "weather" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wetter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,698,487 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weather" and "Wetter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weather vs weaver". 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 #1,698,487 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