weilenvsweiseWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#47,125
“weilen” frequency rank
#740
“weise” frequency rank
47865
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weilen weise
Definition sich an einem Ort aufhalten, an einem Ort bleiben reich an Wissen und Lebenserfahrung

Where the eye mixes weilen and weise

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

6 ch
weilen
5 ch
weise

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weilen is [ˈvaɪ̯lən] while weise is [ˈvaɪ̯zə]. 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 47865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weilen is recorded at frequency rank #47,125, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯lən]. weise is at rank #740, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯zə].

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 47865, this pair ranks #1,269,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of weilen vs weise

Shared letters: eiw. Private to "weilen": ln. Private to "weise": s.

"weilen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "weise" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weilenewilen · weieln · weilenn · weillen · weilne · welien · wielen · wweilen
  • weiseewise · weies · weisse · wesie · wweise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "weilen" and "weise" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weilen" is a verb and "weise" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "weilen" or "weise"?
"weise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #740 in our German list, against #47,125 for "weilen". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "weilen" and "weise". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "weilen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,269,197 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weilen" and "weise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weilen vs Weines". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list