wirevsWortConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#33,395
“wire” frequency rank
#527
“Wort” frequency rank
33922
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wire Wort
Definition Draht, Anschlusskabel kleinste, eine selbstständige Bedeutung tragende Einheit der Sprache, eine grammatische Einheit

Where the eye mixes wire and Wort

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

4 ch
wire
4 ch
Wort

Look-alike desk: wire vs Wort

A purely visual mix-up. wire ([waɪə]) and Wort ([vɔʁt]) 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 33922, 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]. Wort is at rank #527, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vɔʁt].

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 33922, this pair ranks #1,675,052 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wire vs Wort

Shared letters: rw. Private to "wire": ei. Private to "Wort": ot.

"wire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Wort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wireiwre · wier · wrie · wwire
  • Wortowrt · worrt · wortt · wotr · wrot · wwort

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wire" for "Wort" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([waɪə] versus [vɔʁt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "wire" or "Wort"?
"Wort" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #527 in our German list, against #33,395 for "wire". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,675,052 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wire" and "Wort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wig vs wire". 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 #1,675,052 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