walksvswaltzWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,203
“walks” frequency rank
#17,745
“waltz” frequency rank
21948
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature walks waltz
Definition plural of walk A ballroom dance in 3/4 time.

Where the eye mixes walks and waltz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
walks
5 ch
waltz

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. walks (/wɔːks/) and waltz (/wɒlts/) 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 21948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

walks is recorded at frequency rank #4,203, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɔːks/. waltz is at rank #17,745, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɒlts/.

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 21948, this pair ranks #420,180 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of walks vs waltz

Shared letters: alw. Private to "walks": ks. Private to "waltz": tz.

"walks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "waltz" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • walksawlks · wakls · walkks · walkss · wallks · walsk · wlaks · wwalks
  • waltzawltz · walltz · walttz · waltzz · walzt · watlz · wlatz · wwaltz

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "walks" and "waltz" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/wɔːks/ versus /wɒlts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "walks" or "waltz"?
"walks" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,203 in our English list, against #17,745 for "waltz". 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