weakervsweatherWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,503
“weaker” frequency rank
#1,443
“weather” frequency rank
9946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weaker weather
Definition comparative form of weak: more weak The short-term state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place, including the temperature, relative humidity, cloud cover, precipitation, wind, etc.

Where the eye mixes weaker and weather

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
weaker
7 ch
weather

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weaker is /ˈwiːkə/ while weather is /ˈwɛð.ə/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weaker is recorded at frequency rank #8,503, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈwiːkə/. weather is at rank #1,443, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɛð.ə/.

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 9946, this pair ranks #494,779 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of weaker vs weather

Shared letters: aerw. Private to "weaker": k. Private to "weather": ht.

"weaker" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "weather" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weakerewaker · waeker · weaekr · weakerr · weakker · weakre · wekaer · wweaker
  • weatherewather · waether · weahter · weatehr · weatherr · weathher · weathre · weatther

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "weaker" and "weather" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weaker" is an adjective and "weather" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "weaker" or "weather"?
"weather" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,443 in our English list, against #8,503 for "weaker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "weaker" and "weather". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "weaker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "weather" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #494,779 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weaker" and "weather" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weaker vs wrecker". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list