workvsWRTell them apart

Quick tell: work is a verb, WR is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“work” is a verb and “WR” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,425
“work” frequency rank
#23,794
“WR” frequency rank
31219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature work WR
Definition einer (meist festen) bezahlten Arbeit nachgehen; arbeiten Währungsreform

Letter map: work vs WR

Shared letters muted; letters that set work and WR apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
work
2 ch
WR

Grammar separator: work vs WR

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: work is averb and WRanabbrev. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31219, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

work is recorded at frequency rank #7,425, classified as averb, pronounced [wɜːk]. WR is at rank #23,794, tagged as anabbrev.

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 31219, this pair ranks #1,732,458 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of work vs WR

Shared letters: rw. Private to "work": ko. Private to "WR": -.

"work" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "WR" · 2 letters · shape CC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • workowrk · wokr · workk · worrk · wrok · wwork

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "work" and "WR" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "work" is a verb and "WR" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "work" or "WR" show up more?
"work" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,425 in our German list, against #23,794 for "WR". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "work" vs "WR" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "work" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "WR" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,732,458 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "work" and "WR" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wig vs WR". 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 #1,732,458 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