WeldonvsWilsonTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,283
“Weldon” frequency rank
#2,871
“Wilson” frequency rank
40154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Weldon Wilson
Definition A surname. An English, Scottish and northern Irish surname originating as a patronymic.

Where the eye mixes Weldon and Wilson

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Weldon
6 ch
Wilson

Visual trap between Weldon and Wilson

A purely visual mix-up. Weldon (/ˈwɛl.dən/) and Wilson (/ˈwɪlsən/) 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 40154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Weldon is recorded at frequency rank #37,283, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈwɛl.dən/. Wilson is at rank #2,871, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈwɪlsən/.

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 40154, this pair ranks #270,172 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Weldon vs Wilson

Shared letters: lnow. Private to "Weldon": de. Private to "Wilson": is.

"Weldon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Wilson" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Weldonewldon · wedlon · welddon · weldno · weldonn · welldon · welodn · wledon
  • Wilsoniwlson · willson · wilosn · wilsno · wilsonn · wilsson · wislon · wlison

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Weldon" for "Wilson" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈwɛl.dən/ versus /ˈwɪlsən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Weldon" vs "Wilson" - which ranks higher?
"Wilson" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,871 in our English list, against #37,283 for "Weldon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Weldon" and "Wilson" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Weldon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wilson" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,172 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Weldon" and "Wilson" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Weldon vs Whedon". 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 #270,172 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