worldvswurdWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,374
“world” frequency rank
#25,845
“wurd” frequency rank
28219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature world wurd
Definition kein Plural: der Planet Erde kleinste selbstständige bedeutungstragende Einheit der Sprache; Wort

Where the eye mixes world and wurd

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

5 ch
world
4 ch
wurd

Why the eye confuses world with wurd

A purely visual mix-up. world ([wɜː(ɹ)ld]) and wurd ([vøt]) 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 28219, 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]. wurd is at rank #25,845, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vøt].

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 28219, this pair ranks #1,788,554 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of world vs wurd

Shared letters: drw. Private to "world": lo. Private to "wurd": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • worldowrld · wolrd · wordl · worldd · worlld · worrld · wrold · wworld
  • wurduwrd · wrud · wudr · wurdd · wurrd · wwurd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "world" and "wurd" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([wɜː(ɹ)ld] versus [vøt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "world" or "wurd"?
"world" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,374 in our German list, against #25,845 for "wurd". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "world" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wurd" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,788,554 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "world" and "wurd" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Werds vs wurd". 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 #1,788,554 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