WindvswoodWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,752
“Wind” frequency rank
#16,056
“wood” frequency rank
17808
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wind wood
Definition eine gerichtete Luftbewegung in der Atmosphäre Wald

Where the eye mixes Wind and wood

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

4 ch
Wind
4 ch
wood

Look-alike desk: Wind vs wood

A purely visual mix-up. Wind ([vɪnt]) and wood ([wʊd]) 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 17808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wind is recorded at frequency rank #1,752, classified as anoun, pronounced [vɪnt]. wood is at rank #16,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced [wʊd].

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 17808, this pair ranks #1,924,069 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wind vs wood

Shared letters: dw. Private to "Wind": in. Private to "wood": o.

"Wind" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wood" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Windiwnd · widn · windd · winnd · wnid · wwind
  • woodowod · wod · wodo · woodd · wwood

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wind" and "wood" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([vɪnt] versus [wʊd]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Wind" vs "wood" - which ranks higher?
"Wind" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,752 in our German list, against #16,056 for "wood". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "Wind" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wood" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,924,069 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wind" and "wood" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wok vs wood". 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 #1,924,069 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