Which to use
“wish” and “witch” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,948
- “wish” frequency rank
- #47,136
- “witch” frequency rank
- 76084
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wish | witch |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der Wunsch, das Verlangen | Hexe |
Where the eye mixes wish and witch
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between wish and witch
A purely visual mix-up. wish ([wɪʃ]) and witch ([wɪt͡ʃ]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76084, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wish is recorded at frequency rank #28,948, classified as anoun, pronounced [wɪʃ]. witch is at rank #47,136, tagged as anoun, pronounced [wɪt͡ʃ].
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 76084, this pair ranks #292,165 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wish vs witch
Shared letters: hiw. Private to "wish": s. Private to "witch": ct.
"wish" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "witch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "wish" and "witch" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "wish" or "witch" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "wish" and "witch" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wish" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "witch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #292,165 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wish" and "witch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wit vs witch". 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 #292,165 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.