WiddervswideConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#25,400
“Widder” frequency rank
#20,128
“wide” frequency rank
45528
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Widder wide
Definition männliches Schaf, Schafbock von großer Ausdehnung

Where the eye mixes Widder and wide

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Widder
4 ch
wide

Why the eye confuses Widder with wide

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Widder is [ˈvɪdɐ] while wide is [waɪd]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45528, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Widder is recorded at frequency rank #25,400, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɪdɐ]. wide is at rank #20,128, tagged as anadj, pronounced [waɪd].

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 45528, this pair ranks #1,349,967 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Widder vs wide

Shared letters: deiw. Private to "Widder": r. Private to "wide": -.

"Widder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Widderiwdder · wdider · widderr · widdre · widedr · wwidder
  • wideiwde · wdie · widde · wwide

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Widder" and "wide" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Widder" is a noun and "wide" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Widder" or "wide" show up more?
"wide" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,128 in our German list, against #25,400 for "Widder". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Widder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,349,967 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Widder" and "wide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Widder vs Wimper". 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 #1,349,967 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