Which to use
“waits” and “weights” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,637
- “waits” frequency rank
- #8,875
- “weights” frequency rank
- 20512
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | waits | weights |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of wait | plural of weight |
Same sound, different letters: waits vs weights
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. waits runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against weights's 7 (CVVCCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: waits vs weights
This is the hard kind. waits and weights are pronounced identically (/weɪts/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
waits is recorded at frequency rank #11,637, classified as anoun, pronounced /weɪts/. weights is at rank #8,875, tagged as anoun, pronounced /weɪts/.
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 20512, this pair ranks #430,609 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of waits vs weights
Shared letters: istw. Private to "waits": a. Private to "weights": egh.
"waits" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "weights" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "waits" for "weights" ever safe?
Frequency check: "waits" vs "weights" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "waits" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "weights" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #430,609 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "waits" and "weights" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waifu vs waits". 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 #430,609 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.