witvsWortTell them apart

Quick tell: wit is a adverb, Wort is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wit” is an adverb and “Wort” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,706
“wit” frequency rank
#527
“Wort” frequency rank
46233
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wit Wort
Definition von weißer Farbe kleinste, eine selbstständige Bedeutung tragende Einheit der Sprache, eine grammatische Einheit

Where the eye mixes wit and Wort

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

3 ch
wit
4 ch
Wort

Look-alike desk: wit vs Wort

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wit is [wɪt] while Wort is [vɔʁt]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wit is recorded at frequency rank #45,706, classified as anadv, pronounced [wɪt]. 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 46233, this pair ranks #1,326,130 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wit vs Wort

Shared letters: tw. Private to "wit": i. Private to "Wort": or.

"wit" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Wort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wortowrt · worrt · wortt · wotr · wrot · wwort

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wit" for "Wort" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wit" is an adverb and "Wort" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wit" vs "Wort" - which ranks higher?
"Wort" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #527 in our German list, against #45,706 for "wit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wit" 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 #1,326,130 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wit" and "Wort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went vs wit". 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 #1,326,130 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