wirevswirresWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wire is a noun, wirres is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#33,395
“wire” frequency rank
#45,705
“wirres” frequency rank
79100
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wire wirres
Definition Draht, Anschlusskabel Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs wirr

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wire and wirres apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
wire
6 ch
wirres

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wire is [waɪə] while wirres is [ˈvɪʁəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wire is recorded at frequency rank #33,395, classified as anoun, pronounced [waɪə]. wirres is at rank #45,705, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈvɪʁəs].

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 79100, this pair ranks #223,812 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of wire vs wirres

Shared letters: eirw. Private to "wire": -. Private to "wirres": s.

"wire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "wirres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wireiwre · wier · wrie · wwire
  • wirresiwrres · wirers · wires · wirress · wirrse · wrires · wwirres

Frequency comparison

wire#33,395
wirres#45,705

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wire" and "wirres" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wire" is a noun and "wirres" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wire" or "wirres"?
"wire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,395 in our German list, against #45,705 for "wirres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering wire vs wirres

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “wire”; for an adjective, it's “wirres”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wire” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list