weihenvsWochenTell them apart

Quick tell: weihen is a verb, Wochen is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“weihen” is a verb and “Wochen” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,119
“weihen” frequency rank
#471
“Wochen” frequency rank
36590
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weihen Wochen
Definition eine Person durch besondere religiöse Handlungen in ein Amt einführen Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Woche

Where the eye mixes weihen and Wochen

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

6 ch
weihen
6 ch
Wochen

Visual trap between weihen and Wochen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weihen is [ˈvaɪ̯ən] while Wochen is [ˈvɔxn̩]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weihen is recorded at frequency rank #36,119, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯ən]. Wochen is at rank #471, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɔxn̩].

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 36590, this pair ranks #1,611,676 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of weihen vs Wochen

Shared letters: ehnw. Private to "weihen": i. Private to "Wochen": co.

"weihen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Wochen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weihenewihen · wehien · weiehn · weihenn · weihhen · weihne · wiehen · wweihen
  • Wochenowchen · wcohen · wocchen · wocehn · wochenn · wochhen · wochne · wohcen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "weihen" for "Wochen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weihen" is a verb and "Wochen" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "weihen" or "Wochen" show up more?
"Wochen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #471 in our German list, against #36,119 for "weihen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "weihen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wochen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,611,676 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weihen" and "Wochen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weihen 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 #1,611,676 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