wiedervsWinterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wieder is a adverb, Winter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wieder” is an adverb and “Winter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#78
“wieder” frequency rank
#1,249
“Winter” frequency rank
1327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wieder Winter
Definition ein oder mehrere weitere Male Jahreszeit nach dem Herbst und vor dem Frühling, auf der nördlichen Halbkugel Zeit von Dezember bis März

Where the eye mixes wieder and Winter

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

6 ch
wieder
6 ch
Winter

Visual trap between wieder and Winter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wieder is [ˈviːdɐ] while Winter is [ˈvɪntɐ]. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wieder is recorded at frequency rank #78, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈviːdɐ]. Winter is at rank #1,249, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɪntɐ].

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 1327, this pair ranks #2,004,542 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wieder vs Winter

Shared letters: eirw. Private to "wieder": d. Private to "Winter": nt.

"wieder" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "Winter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wiederiweder · weider · wideer · wiedder · wiederr · wiedre · wieedr · wwieder
  • Winteriwnter · winetr · winnter · winterr · wintre · wintter · witner · wniter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wieder" for "Winter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wieder" is an adverb and "Winter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wieder" or "Winter"?
"wieder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #78 in our German list, against #1,249 for "Winter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wieder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Winter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,004,542 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wieder" and "Winter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Winter 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 #2,004,542 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