weeksvswellsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“weeks” and “wells” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#669
“weeks” frequency rank
#4,727
“wells” frequency rank
5396
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weeks wells
Definition plural of week plural of well

Where the eye mixes weeks and wells

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
weeks
5 ch
wells

Look-alike desk: weeks vs wells

A purely visual mix-up. weeks (/wiːks/) and wells (/wɛlz/) 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 5396, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weeks is recorded at frequency rank #669, classified as anoun, pronounced /wiːks/. wells is at rank #4,727, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɛlz/.

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 5396, this pair ranks #515,498 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of weeks vs wells

Shared letters: esw. Private to "weeks": k. Private to "wells": l.

"weeks" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "wells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weekseweks · weekks · weekss · weesk · wekes · weks · wweeks
  • wellsewlls · wellss · wels · welsl · wlels · wwells

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "weeks" and "wells" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/wiːks/ versus /wɛlz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "weeks" or "wells" show up more?
"weeks" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #669 in our English list, against #4,727 for "wells". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "weeks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wells" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #515,498 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "weeks" and "wells" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wells vs Willi". 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 #515,498 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