WitzenvswütenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Witzen is a noun, wüten is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Witzen” is a noun and “wüten” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,916
“Witzen” frequency rank
#42,274
“wüten” frequency rank
76190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Witzen wüten
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Witz kraftvoll agierend und oft ungerichtet Zerstörungen anrichten

Where the eye mixes Witzen and wüten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Witzen runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against wüten's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Witzen
5 ch
wüten

Look-alike desk: Witzen vs wüten

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Witzen is [ˈvɪt͡sn̩] while wüten is [ˈvyːtn̩]. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Witzen is recorded at frequency rank #33,916, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈvɪt͡sn̩]. wüten is at rank #42,274, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvyːtn̩].

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 76190, this pair ranks #289,690 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Witzen vs wüten

Shared letters: entw. Private to "Witzen": iz. Private to "wüten": ü.

"Witzen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wüten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Witzen ← iwtzen · witezn · wittzen · witzenn · witzne · witzzen · wizten · wtizen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Witzen" for "wüten" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Witzen" is a noun and "wüten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Witzen" or "wüten" show up more?
"Witzen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,916 in our German list, against #42,274 for "wüten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Witzen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wüten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #289,690 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Witzen" and "wüten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wotan vs wüten". 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 #289,690 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