Which to use
“was” is a verb and “Wray” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16
- “was” frequency rank
- #32,658
- “Wray” frequency rank
- 32674
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | was | Wray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | first-person singular simple past indicative of be. | A village in Wray-with-Botton parish, City of Lancaster district, Lancashire, England (OS grid ref SD6067). |
Letter map: was vs Wray
Shared letters muted; letters that set was and Wray apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: was vs Wray
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: was is averb and Wrayaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
was is recorded at frequency rank #16, classified as averb, pronounced /wəz/. Wray is at rank #32,658, tagged as aname.
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 32674, this pair ranks #335,872 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of was vs Wray
Shared letters: aw. Private to "was": s. Private to "Wray": ry.
"was" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "Wray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- Wray ← rway · wrayy · wrray · wrya · wwray
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "was" and "Wray" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "was" or "Wray"?
What to do next
You've compared "was" and "Wray". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "was" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Wray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #335,872 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "was" and "Wray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wordy vs Wray". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #335,872 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.