waitevswroteTell them apart

Which to use

“waite” and “wrote” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,281
“waite” frequency rank
#984
“wrote” frequency rank
31265
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature waite wrote
Definition Archaic spelling of wait. simple past of write

Letter map: waite vs wrote

Shared letters muted; letters that set waite and wrote apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
waite
5 ch
wrote

Spelling & dictionary notes on waite vs wrote

waite and wrote are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31265, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

waite is recorded at frequency rank #30,281, classified as averb. wrote is at rank #984, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹəʊt/.

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 31265, this pair ranks #347,582 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of waite vs wrote

Shared letters: etw. Private to "waite": ai. Private to "wrote": or.

"waite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "wrote" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • waiteawite · waiet · waitte · watie · wiate · wwaite
  • wroterwote · worte · wroet · wrotte · wrrote · wrtoe · wwrote

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "waite" and "wrote" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "waite" vs "wrote" - which ranks higher?
"wrote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #984 in our English list, against #30,281 for "waite". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "waite" vs "wrote" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "waite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wrote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #347,582 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "waite" and "wrote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waifu vs waite". 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 #347,582 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list