weigerevsweiterenWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#31,366
“weigere” frequency rank
#575
“weiteren” frequency rank
31941
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weigere weiteren
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs weigern Verschiedene Flexionsformen des Adjektivs weiter, das selbst wiederum den Komparativ des Adjektivs weit darstellt:

Where the eye mixes weigere and weiteren

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. weigere runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against weiteren's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
weigere
8 ch
weiteren

Look-alike desk: weigere vs weiteren

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weigere is [ˈvaɪ̯ɡəʁə] while weiteren is [ˈvaɪ̯təʁən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weigere is recorded at frequency rank #31,366, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯ɡəʁə]. weiteren is at rank #575, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯təʁən].

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 31941, this pair ranks #1,717,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of weigere vs weiteren

Shared letters: eirw. Private to "weigere": g. Private to "weiteren": nt.

"weigere" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "weiteren" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weigere ← ewigere · wegiere · weiegre · weigeer · weigerre · weiggere · weigree · wiegere
  • weiteren ← ewiteren · weietren · weiteern · weiterenn · weiterne · weiterren · weitreen · weitteren

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "weigere" for "weiteren" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weigere" is a verb and "weiteren" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "weigere" or "weiteren" show up more?
"weiteren" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #575 in our German list, against #31,366 for "weigere". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "weigere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weiteren" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,717,991 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weigere" and "weiteren" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weigere vs weigerten". 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 #1,717,991 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