WohlvswordWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Wohl” and “word” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#174
“Wohl” frequency rank
#8,661
“word” frequency rank
8835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wohl word
Definition Zustand des Gutgehens, körperlich und geistig, auch Gesundheit und Glück kleinste selbstständige bedeutungstragende Einheit der Sprache

Where the eye mixes Wohl and word

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

4 ch
Wohl
4 ch
word

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. Wohl ([voːl]) and word ([wɜːd]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wohl is recorded at frequency rank #174, classified as anoun, pronounced [voːl]. word is at rank #8,661, tagged as anoun, pronounced [wɜːd].

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 8835, this pair ranks #1,982,618 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wohl vs word

Shared letters: ow. Private to "Wohl": hl. Private to "word": dr.

"Wohl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "word" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wohlowhl · whol · wohhl · wohll · wolh · wwohl
  • wordowrd · wodr · wordd · worrd · wrod · wword

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wohl" and "word" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([voːl] versus [wɜːd]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Wohl" or "word"?
"Wohl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #174 in our German list, against #8,661 for "word". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "Wohl" and "word". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wohl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "word" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,982,618 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wohl" and "word" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Werds vs word". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list