Which to use
“weed” and “wold” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,566
- “weed” frequency rank
- #42,997
- “wold” frequency rank
- 47563
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | weed | wold |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing. | An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor. |
Where the eye mixes weed and wold
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses weed with wold
A purely visual mix-up. weed (/wiːd/) and wold (/wəʊld/) 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 47563, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
weed is recorded at frequency rank #4,566, classified as anoun, pronounced /wiːd/. wold is at rank #42,997, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wəʊld/.
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 47563, this pair ranks #201,303 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of weed vs wold
Shared letters: dw. Private to "weed": e. Private to "wold": lo.
"weed" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "wold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "weed" for "wold" ever safe?
Frequency check: "weed" vs "wold" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "weed" and "wold" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "weed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wold" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,303 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "weed" and "wold" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wold 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 #201,303 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.