wehtevswhiteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wehte is a verb, white is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wehte” is a verb and “white” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,686
“wehte” frequency rank
#4,316
“white” frequency rank
50002
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wehte white
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs wehen weiß

Where the eye mixes wehte and white

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

5 ch
wehte
5 ch
white

Why the eye confuses wehte with white

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wehte is [ˈveːtə] while white is [waɪt]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wehte is recorded at frequency rank #45,686, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈveːtə]. white is at rank #4,316, tagged as anadj, pronounced [waɪt].

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 50002, this pair ranks #1,190,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wehte vs white

Shared letters: ehtw. Private to "wehte": -. Private to "white": i.

"wehte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "white" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wehteewhte · wehet · wehhte · wehtte · wethe · whete · wwehte
  • whitehwite · whhite · whiet · whitte · whtie · wihte · wwhite

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wehte" for "white" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wehte" is a verb and "white" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wehte" vs "white" - which ranks higher?
"white" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,316 in our German list, against #45,686 for "wehte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wehte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "white" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,190,268 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wehte" and "white" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waste vs wehte". 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 #1,190,268 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