WildvswurdWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Wild” and “wurd” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,629
“Wild” frequency rank
#25,845
“wurd” frequency rank
28474
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wild wurd
Definition Gesamtheit freilebender, jagdbarer Tiere kleinste selbstständige bedeutungstragende Einheit der Sprache; Wort

Where the eye mixes Wild and wurd

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Wild
4 ch
wurd

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. Wild ([vɪlt]) and wurd ([vøt]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28474, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wild is recorded at frequency rank #2,629, classified as anoun, pronounced [vɪlt]. wurd is at rank #25,845, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vøt].

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 28474, this pair ranks #1,784,133 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wild vs wurd

Shared letters: dw. Private to "Wild": il. Private to "wurd": ru.

"Wild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wurd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wildiwld · widl · wildd · willd · wlid · wwild
  • wurduwrd · wrud · wudr · wurdd · wurrd · wwurd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wild" and "wurd" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([vɪlt] versus [vøt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Wild" or "wurd"?
"Wild" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,629 in our German list, against #25,845 for "wurd". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list