Which to use
“wide” is an adjective and “winke” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,128
- “wide” frequency rank
- #32,873
- “winke” frequency rank
- 53001
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wide | winke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | von großer Ausdehnung | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs winken |
Where the eye mixes wide and winke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. wide runs 4 letters (CVCV) against winke'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 winke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wide is [waɪd] while winke is [ˈvɪŋkə]. 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 53001, 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]. winke is at rank #32,873, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɪŋkə].
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 53001, this pair ranks #1,074,963 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wide vs winke
Shared letters: eiw. Private to "wide": d. Private to "winke": kn.
"wide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "winke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wide" and "winke" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "wide" vs "winke" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "wide" and "winke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "winke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,074,963 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wide" and "winke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wickel vs winke". 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 #1,074,963 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.