Which to use
“await” is a verb and “aways” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,374
- “await” frequency rank
- #46,322
- “aways” frequency rank
- 58696
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | await | aways |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To wait for. | Alternative form of a ways. |
Letter map: await vs aways
Shared letters muted; letters that set await and aways apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. await and aways follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Part-of-speech tell for await / aways
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: await is averb and awaysanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
await is recorded at frequency rank #12,374, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈweɪt/. aways is at rank #46,322, tagged as anadv.
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 58696, this pair ranks #110,884 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of await vs aways
Shared letters: aw. Private to "await": it. Private to "aways": sy.
"await" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "aways" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "await" for "aways" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "await" or "aways" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "await" and "aways". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "await" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aways" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #110,884 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "await" and "aways" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Amaya vs aways". 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 #110,884 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.