wellervsWellesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: weller is a adjective, Welles is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“weller” is an adjective and “Welles” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,425
“weller” frequency rank
#28,086
“Welles” frequency rank
56511
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature weller Welles
Definition comparative form of well: more well A locational surname

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set weller and Welles apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
weller
6 ch
Welles

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: weller is anadjective and Wellesaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - r in “weller” becomes s in “Welles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

weller is recorded at frequency rank #28,425, classified as anadj. Welles is at rank #28,086, tagged as aname.

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 56511, this pair ranks #125,746 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of weller vs Welles

Shared letters: elw. Private to "weller": r. Private to "Welles": s.

"weller" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Welles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wellerewller · welelr · weler · wellerr · wellre · wleler · wweller
  • Wellesewlles · welels · weles · welless · wellse · wleles · wwelles

Frequency comparison

weller#28,425
Welles#28,086

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "weller" and "Welles" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "weller" is an adjective and "Welles" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "weller" or "Welles"?
"Welles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,086 in our English list, against #28,425 for "weller". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering weller vs Welles

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “weller”; for a name, it's “Welles”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “weller” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list