WeitevsweitereWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Weite is a noun, weitere is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Weite” is a noun and “weitere” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,783
“Weite” frequency rank
#304
“weitere” frequency rank
4087
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Weite weitere
Definition räumliche Ausdehnung Nominativ Singular Femininum Komparativ der starken Flexion des Adjektivs weit

Where the eye mixes Weite and weitere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Weite
7 ch
weitere

Why the eye confuses Weite with weitere

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Weite is [ˈvaɪ̯tə] while weitere is [ˈvaɪ̯təʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Weite” sits inside “weitere”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Weite is recorded at frequency rank #3,783, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯tə]. weitere is at rank #304, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvaɪ̯təʁə].

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 4087, this pair ranks #1,998,618 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Weite vs weitere

Shared letters: eitw. Private to "Weite": -. Private to "weitere": r.

"Weite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "weitere" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Weiteewite · weiet · weitte · wetie · wiete · wweite
  • weitereewitere · weietre · weiteer · weiterre · weitree · weittere · wetiere · wietere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Weite" for "weitere" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Weite" is a noun and "weitere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Weite" vs "weitere" - which ranks higher?
"weitere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #304 in our German list, against #3,783 for "Weite". 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 "Weite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weitere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,998,618 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Weite" and "weitere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Weite vs writer". 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 #1,998,618 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