Which to use
“wirre” is an adjective and “witte” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,704
- “wirre” frequency rank
- #26,252
- “witte” frequency rank
- 71956
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wirre | witte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs wirr | Kenntnis haben, sich über etwas Wahres sicher sein; wissen |
Where the eye mixes wirre and witte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. wirre and witte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between wirre and witte
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wirre is [ˈvɪʁə] while witte is [ˈvɪtə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71956, 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]. witte is at rank #26,252, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvɪtə].
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 71956, this pair ranks #401,918 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wirre vs witte
Shared letters: eiw. Private to "wirre": r. Private to "witte": t.
"wirre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "witte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wirre" for "witte" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "wirre" or "witte" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wirre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "witte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,918 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wirre" and "witte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wirre vs wirres". 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 #401,918 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.