WehmutvswehmütigWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Wehmut is a noun, wehmütig is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wehmut” is a noun and “wehmütig” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,313
“Wehmut” frequency rank
#45,041
“wehmütig” frequency rank
85354
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wehmut wehmütig
Definition eine nach innen gekehrte, traurige Grundstimmung in einer von Wehmut geprägten Stimmung befindlich

Where the eye mixes Wehmut and wehmütig

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Wehmut
8 ch
wehmütig

Visual trap between Wehmut and wehmütig

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wehmut is [ˈveːmuːt] while wehmütig is [ˈveːmyːtɪç]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85354, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wehmut is recorded at frequency rank #40,313, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈveːmuːt]. wehmütig is at rank #45,041, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈveːmyːtɪç].

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 85354, this pair ranks #109,573 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Wehmut vs wehmütig

Shared letters: ehmtw. Private to "Wehmut": u. Private to "wehmütig": giü.

"Wehmut" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wehmütig" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wehmutewhmut · wehhmut · wehmmut · wehmtu · wehmutt · wehumt · wemhut · whemut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Wehmut" for "wehmütig" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wehmut" is a noun and "wehmütig" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wehmut" or "wehmütig" show up more?
"Wehmut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,313 in our German list, against #45,041 for "wehmütig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wehmut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wehmütig" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #109,573 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wehmut" and "wehmütig" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wehmut vs wehtut". 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 #109,573 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