Which to use
“old” and “ould” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #174
- “old” frequency rank
- #48,397
- “ould” frequency rank
- 48571
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | old | ould |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of an object, concept, relationship, etc., having existed for a relatively long period of time. | Pronunciation spelling of old. |
Where the eye mixes old and ould
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: old vs ould
A purely visual mix-up. old (/ˈəʊld/) and ould (/aʊld/) 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 48571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
old is recorded at frequency rank #174, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈəʊld/. ould is at rank #48,397, tagged as anadj, pronounced /aʊld/.
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 48571, this pair ranks #191,773 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of old vs ould
Shared letters: dlo. Private to "old": -. Private to "ould": u.
"old" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "ould" · 4 letters · shape VVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ould ← oudl · ouldd · oulld · uold
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "old" and "ould" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "old" or "ould" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "old" and "ould" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "old" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ould" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,773 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "old" and "ould" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oui vs ould". 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 #191,773 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.