WichtvswinktTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#42,950
“Wicht” frequency rank
#16,607
“winkt” frequency rank
59557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wicht winkt
Definition kleine Sagengestalt, die gute Dinge verrichtet 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs winken

Where the eye mixes Wicht and winkt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Wicht and winkt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Wicht
5 ch
winkt

Look-alike desk: Wicht vs winkt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wicht is [vɪçt] while winkt is [vɪŋkt]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wicht is recorded at frequency rank #42,950, classified as anoun, pronounced [vɪçt]. winkt is at rank #16,607, tagged as averb, pronounced [vɪŋkt].

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 59557, this pair ranks #820,128 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Wicht vs winkt

Shared letters: itw. Private to "Wicht": ch. Private to "winkt": kn.

"Wicht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "winkt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wicht ← iwcht · wciht · wiccht · wichht · wichtt · wicth · wihct · wwicht
  • winkt ← iwnkt · wiknt · winkkt · winktt · winnkt · wintk · wnikt · wwinkt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wicht" and "winkt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wicht" is a noun and "winkt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wicht" or "winkt" show up more?
"winkt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,607 in our German list, against #42,950 for "Wicht". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wicht" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "winkt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #820,128 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wicht" and "winkt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wicht vs witch". 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 #820,128 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