wirrevswirresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,704
“wirre” frequency rank
#45,705
“wirres” frequency rank
91409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wirre wirres
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs wirr Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs wirr

Where the eye mixes wirre and wirres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. wirre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against wirres's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
wirre
6 ch
wirres

Look-alike desk: wirre vs wirres

A purely visual mix-up. wirre ([ˈvɪʁə]) and wirres ([ˈvɪʁəs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “wirre” sits inside “wirres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wirre is recorded at frequency rank #45,704, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈvɪʁə]. 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 91409, this pair ranks #38,123 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of wirre vs wirres

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

"wirre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "wirres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wirreiwrre · wirer · wrire · wwirre
  • wirresiwrres · wirers · wires · wirress · wirrse · wrires · wwirres

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wirre" and "wirres" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈvɪʁə] versus [ˈvɪʁəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "wirre" or "wirres"?
"wirre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,704 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "wirre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wirres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,123 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wirre" and "wirres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Werne vs wirre". 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 #38,123 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