Which to use
“wider” is a preposition and “woher” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,132
- “wider” frequency rank
- #1,951
- “woher” frequency rank
- 7083
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wider | woher |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | drückt einen Gegensatz aus | leitet eine Frage nach der Herkunft ein |
Where the eye mixes wider and woher
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: wider vs woher
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wider is [ˈviːdɐ] while woher is [voˈheːɐ̯]. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7083, 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]. woher is at rank #1,951, tagged as anadv, pronounced [voˈheːɐ̯].
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 7083, this pair ranks #1,989,436 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wider vs woher
Shared letters: erw. Private to "wider": di. Private to "woher": ho.
"wider" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "woher" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wider" for "woher" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "wider" or "woher" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "wider" and "woher" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wider" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "woher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,989,436 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wider" and "woher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wider vs writer". 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 #1,989,436 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.