WeltenvsWolkenWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Welten” and “Wolken” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,376
“Welten” frequency rank
#5,133
“Wolken” frequency rank
11509
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Welten Wolken
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Welt Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Wolke

Where the eye mixes Welten and Wolken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Welten and Wolken follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Welten
6 ch
Wolken

Visual trap between Welten and Wolken

A purely visual mix-up. Welten ([ˈvɛltn̩]) and Wolken ([ˈvɔlkn̩]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Welten is recorded at frequency rank #6,376, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɛltn̩]. Wolken is at rank #5,133, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɔlkn̩].

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 11509, this pair ranks #1,969,520 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Welten vs Wolken

Shared letters: elnw. Private to "Welten": t. Private to "Wolken": ko.

"Welten" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Wolken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Weltenewlten · weletn · wellten · weltenn · weltne · weltten · wetlen · wleten
  • Wolkenowlken · wloken · woklen · wolekn · wolkenn · wolkken · wolkne · wollken

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Welten" for "Wolken" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvɛltn̩] versus [ˈvɔlkn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Welten" or "Wolken" show up more?
"Wolken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,133 in our German list, against #6,376 for "Welten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Welten" and "Wolken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Welten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wolken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,969,520 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Welten" and "Wolken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "welke vs Welten". 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 #1,969,520 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