Wanton or wonton?
wanton is an adjective meaning “Lewd, immoral; sexually open, unchaste”; wonton is a noun meaning “A Chinese dumpling, often stuffed with varieties of meat or seafood and…”. Use wanton as an adjective and wonton as a noun (wanton is also a noun: “A pampered or coddled person”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) wanton is about 4.4 times as common as wonton.
What is the difference between wanton and wonton?
| wanton | wonton | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | noun |
| Meaning | Lewd, immoral; sexually open, unchaste Capricious, reckless of morality, justice etc.; acting without regard for the law or the well-being of others; gratuitous A pampered or coddled person | A Chinese dumpling, often stuffed with varieties of meat or seafood and vegetables |
| Example | The young man wantoned away his inheritance | none recorded |
| Forms | wantoner, wantonest | wontons |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwɒntən/ /ˈwɑntən/ | /ˈwɑntɑn/ /ˈwɒntɒn/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | about once in every 6 million words |
Sources: wanton and wonton in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of wanton and wonton
wanton
- 1
Lewd, immoral; sexually open, unchaste
- 2
A pampered or coddled person
- 3
To rove and ramble without restraint, rule, or limit; to revel; to play loosely; to frolic
- 4
wonton (Chinese dumpling)
- 5
Capricious, reckless of morality, justice etc.; acting without regard for the law or the well-being of others; gratuitous
- 6
An overly playful person; a trifler
- 7
To waste or squander, especially in pleasure (most often with away)
The young man wantoned away his inheritance
- 8
A self-indulgent person, fond of excess
wonton
- 1
A Chinese dumpling, often stuffed with varieties of meat or seafood and vegetables
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, wanton or wonton?
wanton appears about once in every 1 million words; wonton about once in every 6 million words.
wanton about once in every 1 million wordswonton about once in every 6 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search wanton vs wonton?
“wanton vs wonton” is searched about 210 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“wonton vs wanton”, “wanton or wonton”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.