WohlvsworldWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#174
“Wohl” frequency rank
#2,374
“world” frequency rank
2548
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wohl world
Definition Zustand des Gutgehens, körperlich und geistig, auch Gesundheit und Glück kein Plural: der Planet Erde

Where the eye mixes Wohl and world

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Wohl
5 ch
world

Visual trap between Wohl and world

A purely visual mix-up. Wohl ([voːl]) and world ([wɜː(ɹ)ld]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wohl is recorded at frequency rank #174, classified as anoun, pronounced [voːl]. world is at rank #2,374, tagged as anoun, pronounced [wɜː(ɹ)ld].

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 2548, this pair ranks #2,002,102 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wohl vs world

Shared letters: low. Private to "Wohl": h. Private to "world": dr.

"Wohl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "world" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wohlowhl · whol · wohhl · wohll · wolh · wwohl
  • worldowrld · wolrd · wordl · worldd · worlld · worrld · wrold · wworld

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Wohl" for "world" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([voːl] versus [wɜː(ɹ)ld]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Wohl" or "world" show up more?
"Wohl" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #174 in our German list, against #2,374 for "world". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wohl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "world" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,002,102 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wohl" and "world" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wiehl vs Wohl". 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 #2,002,102 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