WichtvswirktTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#42,950
“Wicht” frequency rank
#1,406
“wirkt” frequency rank
44356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes Wicht and wirkt

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

Visual trap between Wicht and wirkt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wicht is [vɪçt] while wirkt is [vɪʁkt]. 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 44356, 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]. wirkt is at rank #1,406, tagged as averb, pronounced [vɪʁkt].

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 44356, this pair ranks #1,388,860 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Wicht vs wirkt

Shared letters: itw. Private to "Wicht": ch. Private to "wirkt": kr.

"Wicht" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "wirkt" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wicht ← iwcht · wciht · wiccht · wichht · wichtt · wicth · wihct · wwicht
  • wirkt ← iwrkt · wikrt · wirkkt · wirktt · wirrkt · wirtk · wrikt · wwirkt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wicht" and "wirkt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wicht" is a noun and "wirkt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Wicht" or "wirkt" show up more?
"wirkt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,406 in our German list, against #42,950 for "Wicht". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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 "wirkt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,388,860 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wicht" and "wirkt" 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 #1,388,860 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