welkevsWolleConfusable pair

Quick tell: welke is a adjective, Wolle is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,128
“welke” frequency rank
#2,631
“Wolle” frequency rank
49759
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature welke Wolle
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs welk aus Tierhaaren gewonnenes Produkt für die Herstellung von Garn

Where the eye mixes welke and Wolle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
welke
5 ch
Wolle

Visual trap between welke and Wolle

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: welke is [ˈvɛlkə] while Wolle is [ˈvɔlə]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49759, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

welke is recorded at frequency rank #47,128, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈvɛlkə]. Wolle is at rank #2,631, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɔlə].

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 49759, this pair ranks #1,199,441 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of welke vs Wolle

Shared letters: elw. Private to "welke": k. Private to "Wolle": o.

"welke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Wolle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • welkeewlke · wekle · welek · welkke · wellke · wleke · wwelke
  • Wolleowlle · wlole · wole · wolel · wwolle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "welke" and "Wolle" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "welke" is an adjective and "Wolle" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "welke" or "Wolle" show up more?
"Wolle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,631 in our German list, against #47,128 for "welke". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "welke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wolle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,199,441 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "welke" and "Wolle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wehte vs welke". 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 #1,199,441 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