warmvswornWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,025
“warm” frequency rank
#4,644
“worn” frequency rank
6669
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature warm worn
Definition Of a somewhat high temperature, often but not always connoting that the high temperature is pleasant rather than uncomfortable. Damaged and shabby as a result of much use.

Where the eye mixes warm and worn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
warm
4 ch
worn

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. warm (/wɔːm/) and worn (/wɔːn/) 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 6669, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

warm is recorded at frequency rank #2,025, classified as anadj, pronounced /wɔːm/. worn is at rank #4,644, tagged as anadj, pronounced /wɔːn/.

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 6669, this pair ranks #510,483 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of warm vs worn

Shared letters: rw. Private to "warm": am. Private to "worn": no.

"warm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "worn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • warmawrm · wamr · warmm · warrm · wram · wwarm
  • wornowrn · wonr · wornn · worrn · wron · wworn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "warm" and "worn" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/wɔːm/ versus /wɔːn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "warm" or "worn"?
"warm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,025 in our English list, against #4,644 for "worn". 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