wehrenvsWeidenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wehren is a verb, Weiden is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wehren” is a verb and “Weiden” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,444
“wehren” frequency rank
#9,836
“Weiden” frequency rank
15280
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wehren Weiden
Definition sich etwas/jemandem entgegensetzen; gegen etwas Widerstand leisten eine Stadt in Bayern, Deutschland

Where the eye mixes wehren and Weiden

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
wehren
6 ch
Weiden

Why the eye confuses wehren with Weiden

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wehren is [ˈveːʁən] while Weiden is [ˈvaɪ̯dn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15280, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wehren is recorded at frequency rank #5,444, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈveːʁən]. Weiden is at rank #9,836, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯dn̩].

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 15280, this pair ranks #1,945,091 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wehren vs Weiden

Shared letters: enw. Private to "wehren": hr. Private to "Weiden": di.

"wehren" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Weiden" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wehrenewhren · wehern · wehhren · wehrenn · wehrne · wehrren · werhen · wheren
  • Weidenewiden · wedien · weidden · weidenn · weidne · weiedn · wieden · wweiden

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wehren" for "Weiden" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wehren" is a verb and "Weiden" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wehren" or "Weiden"?
"wehren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,444 in our German list, against #9,836 for "Weiden". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wehren" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Weiden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,945,091 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wehren" and "Weiden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Weiden 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 #1,945,091 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