weakvswerConfusable pair

Quick tell: weak is a adjective, wer is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“weak” is an adjective and “wer” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,237
“weak” frequency rank
#34,347
“wer” frequency rank
36584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weak wer
Definition Lacking in force (usually strength) or ability. A man; a male; a husband

Letter map: weak vs wer

Shared letters muted; letters that set weak and wer apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
weak
3 ch
wer

Part-of-speech tell for weak / wer

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: weak is anadjective and weranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weak is recorded at frequency rank #2,237, classified as anadj, pronounced /wiːk/. wer is at rank #34,347, tagged as anoun.

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 36584, this pair ranks #301,917 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of weak vs wer

Shared letters: ew. Private to "weak": ak. Private to "wer": r.

"weak" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "wer" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weakewak · weakk · weka · wweak

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "weak" and "wer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weak" is an adjective and "wer" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "weak" or "wer" show up more?
"weak" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,237 in our English list, against #34,347 for "wer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "weak" vs "wer" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "weak" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #301,917 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weak" and "wer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wer vs WYO". 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 #301,917 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