wagersvswaverWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#40,963
“wagers” frequency rank
#39,643
“waver” frequency rank
80606
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wagers waver
Definition plural of wager To swing or wave, especially in the air, wind, etc.; to flutter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wagers and waver apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
wagers
5 ch
waver

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wagers is anoun and waveraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80606, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wagers is recorded at frequency rank #40,963, classified as anoun. waver is at rank #39,643, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈweɪvə/.

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 80606, this pair ranks #19,445 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of wagers vs waver

Shared letters: aerw. Private to "wagers": gs. Private to "waver": v.

"wagers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "waver" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wagersawgers · waegrs · wagerrs · wagerss · wagesr · waggers · wagres · wgaers
  • waverawver · waevr · waverr · wavre · wavver · wvaer · wwaver

Frequency comparison

wagers#40,963
waver#39,643

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wagers" and "waver" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wagers" is a noun and "waver" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wagers" or "waver"?
"waver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,643 in our English list, against #40,963 for "wagers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering wagers vs waver

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “wagers”; for a verb, it's “waver”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wagers” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list