widmevsWitzeWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#37,308
“widme” frequency rank
#4,478
“Witze” frequency rank
41786
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature widme Witze
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs widmen Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Witz

Where the eye mixes widme and Witze

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

5 ch
widme
5 ch
Witze

Visual trap between widme and Witze

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: widme is [ˈvɪtmə] while Witze is [ˈvɪt͡sə]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41786, 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]. Witze is at rank #4,478, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɪt͡sə].

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 41786, this pair ranks #1,469,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of widme vs Witze

Shared letters: eiw. Private to "widme": dm. Private to "Witze": tz.

"widme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Witze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • widmeiwdme · wdime · widdme · widem · widmme · wimde · wwidme
  • Witzeiwtze · witez · wittze · witzze · wizte · wtize · wwitze

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "widme" for "Witze" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "widme" is a verb and "Witze" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "widme" or "Witze" show up more?
"Witze" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,478 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

Eye-level mix-up between "widme" and "Witze" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "widme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Witze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,469,110 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "widme" and "Witze" 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 #1,469,110 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