waldvswartWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#44,013
“wald” frequency rank
#38,680
“wart” frequency rank
82693
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wald wart
Definition To govern; inherit. A type of deformed growth occurring on the skin caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wald and wart apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
wald
4 ch
wart

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wald is /wɔːld/ while wart is /wɔːt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82693, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wald is recorded at frequency rank #44,013, classified as averb, pronounced /wɔːld/. wart is at rank #38,680, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɔːt/.

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 82693, this pair ranks #15,250 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of wald vs wart

Shared letters: aw. Private to "wald": dl. Private to "wart": rt.

"wald" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wart" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • waldawld · wadl · waldd · walld · wlad · wwald
  • wartawrt · warrt · wartt · watr · wrat · wwart

Frequency comparison

wald#44,013
wart#38,680

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wald" and "wart" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wald" is a verb and "wart" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wald" or "wart"?
"wart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,680 in our English list, against #44,013 for "wald". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering wald vs wart

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “wald”; for a noun, it's “wart”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wald” 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