worldvsWortWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,374
“world” frequency rank
#527
“Wort” frequency rank
2901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature world Wort
Definition kein Plural: der Planet Erde kleinste, eine selbstständige Bedeutung tragende Einheit der Sprache, eine grammatische Einheit

Where the eye mixes world and Wort

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

5 ch
world
4 ch
Wort

Why the eye confuses world with Wort

A purely visual mix-up. world ([wɜː(ɹ)ld]) and Wort ([vɔʁt]) 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 2901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

world is recorded at frequency rank #2,374, classified as anoun, pronounced [wɜː(ɹ)ld]. Wort is at rank #527, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vɔʁt].

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 2901, this pair ranks #2,001,351 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of world vs Wort

Shared letters: orw. Private to "world": dl. Private to "Wort": t.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • worldowrld · wolrd · wordl · worldd · worlld · worrld · wrold · wworld
  • Wortowrt · worrt · wortt · wotr · wrot · wwort

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "world" for "Wort" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([wɜː(ɹ)ld] versus [vɔʁt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "world" or "Wort" show up more?
"Wort" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #527 in our German list, against #2,374 for "world". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "world" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,001,351 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "world" and "Wort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went vs Wort". 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 #2,001,351 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