wovsWutConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#123
“wo” frequency rank
#4,174
“Wut” frequency rank
4297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wo Wut
Definition an welchem Ort, an welcher Stelle starke Gemütserregung, ein Gefühl großen Ärgers, oft in Verbindung mit aggressivem Verhalten

Where the eye mixes wo and Wut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
wo
3 ch
Wut

Why the eye confuses wo with Wut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wo is [voː] while Wut is [vuːt]. 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 4297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wo is recorded at frequency rank #123, classified as anadv, pronounced [voː]. Wut is at rank #4,174, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vuːt].

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 4297, this pair ranks #1,998,079 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wo vs Wut

Shared letters: w. Private to "wo": o. Private to "Wut": tu.

"wo" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "Wut" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wo" for "Wut" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wo" is an adverb and "Wut" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "wo" or "Wut" show up more?
"wo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #123 in our German list, against #4,174 for "Wut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "wo" and "Wut" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,998,079 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wo" and "Wut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went vs Wut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,998,079 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