WutvswütenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,174
“Wut” frequency rank
#42,274
“wüten” frequency rank
46448
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wut wüten
Definition starke Gemütserregung, ein Gefühl großen Ärgers, oft in Verbindung mit aggressivem Verhalten kraftvoll agierend und oft ungerichtet Zerstörungen anrichten

Where the eye mixes Wut and wüten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
Wut
5 ch
wüten

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Wut is [vuːt] while wüten is [ˈvyːtn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wut is recorded at frequency rank #4,174, classified as anoun, pronounced [vuːt]. wüten is at rank #42,274, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈvyːtn̩].

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 46448, this pair ranks #1,318,807 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Wut vs wüten

Shared letters: tw. Private to "Wut": u. Private to "wüten": enü.

"Wut" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "wüten" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Wut" and "wüten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wut" is a noun and "wüten" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Wut" or "wüten"?
"Wut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,174 in our German list, against #42,274 for "wüten". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "Wut" and "wüten". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wüten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,318,807 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wut" and "wüten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wotan vs wüten". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list