WehrvsWRWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Wehr is a noun, WR is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wehr” is a noun and “WR” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,974
“Wehr” frequency rank
#23,794
“WR” frequency rank
34768
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wehr WR
Definition Anlage zur Stauung von Wasser, die quer durch ein fließendes Gewässer verläuft Währungsreform

Letter map: Wehr vs WR

Shared letters muted; letters that set Wehr and WR apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Wehr
2 ch
WR

Role in the sentence - Wehr and WR

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Wehr is anoun and WRanabbrev. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34768, 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]. WR is at rank #23,794, tagged as anabbrev.

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 34768, this pair ranks #1,655,727 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wehr vs WR

Shared letters: rw. Private to "Wehr": eh. Private to "WR": -.

"Wehr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "WR" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wehrewhr · wehhr · wehrr · werh · wher · wwehr

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Wehr" and "WR" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wehr" is a noun and "WR" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wehr" or "WR" show up more?
"Wehr" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,974 in our German list, against #23,794 for "WR". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "Wehr" vs "WR" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wehr" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "WR" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,655,727 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wehr" and "WR" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wig vs WR". 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 #1,655,727 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