WortvsworumTell them apart

Quick tell: Wort is a noun, worum is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wort” is a noun and “worum” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#527
“Wort” frequency rank
#6,880
“worum” frequency rank
7407
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wort worum
Definition kleinste, eine selbstständige Bedeutung tragende Einheit der Sprache, eine grammatische Einheit um welche Sache/Angelegenheit

Where the eye mixes Wort and worum

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

4 ch
Wort
5 ch
worum

Look-alike desk: Wort vs worum

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wort is [vɔʁt] while worum is [voˈʁʊm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wort is recorded at frequency rank #527, classified as anoun, pronounced [vɔʁt]. worum is at rank #6,880, tagged as anadv, pronounced [voˈʁʊm].

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 7407, this pair ranks #1,988,269 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Wort vs worum

Shared letters: orw. Private to "Wort": t. Private to "worum": mu.

"Wort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "worum" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wortowrt · worrt · wortt · wotr · wrot · wwort
  • worumowrum · wormu · worrum · worumm · wourm · wroum · wworum

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Wort" and "worum" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wort" is a noun and "worum" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Wort" vs "worum" - which ranks higher?
"Wort" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #527 in our German list, against #6,880 for "worum". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wort" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "worum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,988,269 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wort" and "worum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wörth vs worum". 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 #1,988,269 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