withinvszeroConfusable pair

Quick tell: within is a preposition, zero is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“within” is a preposition and “zero” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,872
“within” frequency rank
#9,487
“zero” frequency rank
39359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature within zero
Definition innerhalb, in Null

Letter map: within vs zero

Shared letters muted; letters that set within and zero apart highlighted. No shared letter run.

6 ch
within
4 ch
zero

Role in the sentence - within and zero

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: within is apreposition and zeroanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

within is recorded at frequency rank #29,872, classified as aprep, pronounced […]. zero is at rank #9,487, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 39359, this pair ranks #1,538,938 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of within vs zero

Shared letters: none. Private to "within": hintw. Private to "zero": eorz.

"within" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "zero" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • withiniwthin · wihtin · withhin · withinn · withni · witihn · witthin · wtihin
  • zeroezro · zeor · zerro · zreo · zzero

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "within" for "zero" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "within" is a preposition and "zero" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "within" vs "zero" - which ranks higher?
"zero" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,487 in our German list, against #29,872 for "within". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "within" and "zero".

  • Full dictionary entry for "within" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "zero" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,538,938 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "within" and "zero" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs within". 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 #1,538,938 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