wonvsWotanWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#25,404
“won” frequency rank
#49,400
“Wotan” frequency rank
74804
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature won Wotan
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs win oberster germanischer Gott

Letter map: won vs Wotan

Shared letters muted; letters that set won and Wotan apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
won
5 ch
Wotan

Grammar separator: won vs Wotan

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: won is averb and Wotananoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74804, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

won is recorded at frequency rank #25,404, classified as averb, pronounced […]. Wotan is at rank #49,400, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈvoːtaːn].

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 74804, this pair ranks #324,013 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of won vs Wotan

Shared letters: now. Private to "won": -. Private to "Wotan": at.

"won" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Wotan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wotanowtan · woatn · wotann · wotna · wottan · wtoan · wwotan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "won" and "Wotan" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "won" is a verb and "Wotan" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "won" or "Wotan"?
"won" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,404 in our German list, against #49,400 for "Wotan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "won" and "Wotan". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "won" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wotan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #324,013 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "won" and "Wotan" 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 #324,013 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