Which to use
“weigh” is a verb and “wish” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,303
- “weigh” frequency rank
- #685
- “wish” frequency rank
- 7988
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | weigh | wish |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To determine the weight of an object. | A desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen. |
Where the eye mixes weigh and wish
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weigh is /weɪ/ while wish is /wɪʃ/. 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 7988, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
weigh is recorded at frequency rank #7,303, classified as averb, pronounced /weɪ/. wish is at rank #685, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɪʃ/.
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 7988, this pair ranks #504,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of weigh vs wish
Shared letters: hiw. Private to "weigh": eg. Private to "wish": s.
"weigh" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "wish" · 4 letters · shape CVCC