widervswidmeTell them apart

Quick tell: wider is a preposition, widme is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wider” is a preposition and “widme” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,132
“wider” frequency rank
#37,308
“widme” frequency rank
42440
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wider widme
Definition drückt einen Gegensatz aus 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs widmen

Where the eye mixes wider and widme

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

5 ch
wider
5 ch
widme

Look-alike desk: wider vs widme

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wider is [ˈviːdɐ] while widme is [ˈvɪtmə]. 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 (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42440, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wider is recorded at frequency rank #5,132, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈviːdɐ]. 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 42440, this pair ranks #1,449,208 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wider vs widme

Shared letters: deiw. Private to "wider": r. Private to "widme": m.

"wider" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "widme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wideriwder · wdier · widerr · widre · wiedr · wwider
  • widmeiwdme · wdime · widdme · widem · widmme · wimde · wwidme

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wider" and "widme" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wider" is a preposition and "widme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "wider" or "widme" show up more?
"wider" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,132 in our German list, against #37,308 for "widme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wider" 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 #1,449,208 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wider" 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 #1,449,208 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