WehrvsWohlWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,974
“Wehr” frequency rank
#174
“Wohl” frequency rank
11148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wehr Wohl
Definition Anlage zur Stauung von Wasser, die quer durch ein fließendes Gewässer verläuft Zustand des Gutgehens, körperlich und geistig, auch Gesundheit und Glück

Where the eye mixes Wehr and Wohl

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Wehr
4 ch
Wohl

Why the eye confuses Wehr with Wohl

A purely visual mix-up. Wehr ([veːɐ̯]) and Wohl ([voːl]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wehr is recorded at frequency rank #10,974, classified as anoun, pronounced [veːɐ̯]. Wohl is at rank #174, tagged as anoun, pronounced [voːl].

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 11148, this pair ranks #1,971,444 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wehr vs Wohl

Shared letters: hw. Private to "Wehr": er. Private to "Wohl": lo.

"Wehr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Wohl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wehrewhr · wehhr · wehrr · werh · wher · wwehr
  • Wohlowhl · whol · wohhl · wohll · wolh · wwohl

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wehr" and "Wohl" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([veːɐ̯] versus [voːl]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Wehr" vs "Wohl" - which ranks higher?
"Wohl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #174 in our German list, against #10,974 for "Wehr". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wehr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wohl" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,971,444 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wehr" and "Wohl" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wehr vs went". 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 #1,971,444 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