Which to use
“ward” is a noun and “wore” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,854
- “ward” frequency rank
- #4,422
- “wore” frequency rank
- 8276
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ward | wore |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A warden; a guard; a guardian or watchman. | simple past of wear |
Where the eye mixes ward and wore
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ward is /wɔːd/ while wore is /wɔː/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8276, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ward is recorded at frequency rank #3,854, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɔːd/. 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 8276, this pair ranks #503,303 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ward vs wore
Shared letters: rw. Private to "ward": ad. Private to "wore": eo.
"ward" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "wore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV