wakevsworeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,807
“wake” frequency rank
#4,422
“wore” frequency rank
6229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wake wore
Definition (often followed by up) To stop sleeping. simple past of wear

Where the eye mixes wake and wore

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
wake
4 ch
wore

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. wake (/weɪk/) and wore (/wɔː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wake is recorded at frequency rank #1,807, classified as averb, pronounced /weɪk/. wore is at rank #4,422, tagged as averb, pronounced /wɔː/.

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 6229, this pair ranks #512,237 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wake vs wore

Shared letters: ew. Private to "wake": ak. Private to "wore": or.

"wake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "wore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wakeawke · waek · wakke · wkae · wwake
  • woreowre · woer · worre · wroe · wwore

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wake" and "wore" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/weɪk/ versus /wɔː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "wake" or "wore"?
"wake" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,807 in our English list, against #4,422 for "wore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list