wavedvsweaverConfusable pair

Quick tell: waved is a verb, weaver is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“waved” is a verb and “weaver” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,250
“waved” frequency rank
#13,077
“weaver” frequency rank
27327
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature waved weaver
Definition simple past and past participle of wave A person who weaves; especially, one who weaves cloth for a living.

Where the eye mixes waved and weaver

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
waved
6 ch
weaver

Look-alike desk: waved vs weaver

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: waved is /weɪvd/ while weaver is /ˈwiː.və(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

waved is recorded at frequency rank #14,250, classified as averb, pronounced /weɪvd/. weaver is at rank #13,077, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwiː.və(ɹ)/.

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 27327, this pair ranks #379,824 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of waved vs weaver

Shared letters: aevw. Private to "waved": d. Private to "weaver": r.

"waved" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "weaver" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wavedawved · waevd · wavde · wavedd · wavved · wvaed · wwaved
  • weaverewaver · waever · weaevr · weaverr · weavre · weavver · wevaer · wweaver

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "waved" for "weaver" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "waved" is a verb and "weaver" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "waved" vs "weaver" - which ranks higher?
"weaver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,077 in our English list, against #14,250 for "waved". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "waved" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weaver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #379,824 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "waved" and "weaver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waved vs wove". 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 #379,824 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list