Which to use
“wide” is an adjective and “widme” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,128
- “wide” frequency rank
- #37,308
- “widme” frequency rank
- 57436
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wide | widme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | von großer Ausdehnung | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs widmen |
Where the eye mixes wide and widme
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wide runs 4 letters (CVCV) against widme's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses wide with widme
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wide is [waɪd] while widme is [ˈvɪtmə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wide is recorded at frequency rank #20,128, classified as anadj, pronounced [waɪd]. widme is at rank #37,308, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɪtmə].
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 57436, this pair ranks #901,428 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wide vs widme
Shared letters: deiw. Private to "wide": -. Private to "widme": m.
"wide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "widme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wide" and "widme" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "wide" or "widme" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "wide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "widme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #901,428 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wide" and "widme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "widme vs wirre". 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 #901,428 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.