wallow vs walls, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37,280
“wallow” frequency rank: #2,422
“walls” frequency rank: 39702
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	wallow	walls
Definition	To roll oneself about in something dirty, for example in mud.	plural of wall

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wallow and walls apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

wallow

5 ch

walls

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wallow is /ˈwɒ.ləʊ/ while walls is /wɔːlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39702, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wallow is recorded at frequency rank #37,280, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈwɒ.ləʊ/. walls is at rank #2,422, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɔːlz/.

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 39702, this pair ranks #274,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wallow vs walls

Shared letters: alw. Private to "wallow": o. Private to "walls": s.

"wallow" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "walls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

wallow ← awllow · walloww · wallwo · walolw · walow · wlalow · wwallow
walls ← awlls · wallss · wals · walsl · wlals · wwalls

Frequency comparison

wallow#37,280

walls#2,422

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wallow" and "walls" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wallow" is a verb and "walls" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "wallow" or "walls"?

"walls" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,422 in our English list, against #37,280 for "wallow". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering wallow vs walls

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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