Which to use
“wehen” and “weihen” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,067
- “wehen” frequency rank
- #36,119
- “weihen” frequency rank
- 49186
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wehen | weihen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | eine Luftströmung verursachen | eine Person durch besondere religiöse Handlungen in ein Amt einführen |
Where the eye mixes wehen and weihen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. wehen runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against weihen's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses wehen with weihen
A purely visual mix-up. wehen ([ˈveːən]) and weihen ([ˈvaɪ̯ən]) 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 49186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wehen is recorded at frequency rank #13,067, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈveːən]. weihen is at rank #36,119, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯ən].
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 49186, this pair ranks #1,220,921 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wehen vs weihen
Shared letters: ehnw. Private to "wehen": -. Private to "weihen": i.
"wehen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "weihen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "wehen" and "weihen" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "wehen" vs "weihen" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "wehen" and "weihen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wehen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "weihen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,220,921 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wehen" and "weihen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weihen vs weilen". 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 #1,220,921 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.