warsvswinsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,565
“wars” frequency rank
#2,056
“wins” frequency rank
4621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wars wins
Definition plural of war plural of win

Where the eye mixes wars and wins

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

4 ch
wars
4 ch
wins

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. wars (/wɔɹz/) and wins (/wɪnz/) 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 4621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wars is recorded at frequency rank #2,565, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɔɹz/. wins is at rank #2,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɪnz/.

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 4621, this pair ranks #518,282 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wars vs wins

Shared letters: sw. Private to "wars": ar. Private to "wins": in.

"wars" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wins" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • warsawrs · warrs · warss · wasr · wras · wwars
  • winsiwns · winns · winss · wisn · wnis · wwins

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wars" and "wins" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/wɔɹz/ versus /wɪnz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "wars" or "wins"?
"wins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,056 in our English list, against #2,565 for "wars". 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