widmevswireWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#37,308
“widme” frequency rank
#33,395
“wire” frequency rank
70703
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature widme wire
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs widmen Draht, Anschlusskabel

Where the eye mixes widme and wire

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
widme
4 ch
wire

Look-alike desk: widme vs wire

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: widme is [ˈvɪtmə] while wire is [waɪə]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70703, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

widme is recorded at frequency rank #37,308, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈvɪtmə]. wire is at rank #33,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced [waɪə].

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 70703, this pair ranks #438,398 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of widme vs wire

Shared letters: eiw. Private to "widme": dm. Private to "wire": r.

"widme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "wire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • widmeiwdme · wdime · widdme · widem · widmme · wimde · wwidme
  • wireiwre · wier · wrie · wwire

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "widme" and "wire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "widme" is a verb and "wire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "widme" or "wire"?
"wire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,395 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "widme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #438,398 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "widme" and "wire" 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 #438,398 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