WellesvswellsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#28,086
“Welles” frequency rank
#4,727
“wells” frequency rank
32813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Welles wells
Definition A locational surname plural of well

Letter map: Welles vs wells

Shared letters muted; letters that set Welles and wells apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

6 ch
Welles
5 ch
wells

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Welles is aname and wellsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Welles is recorded at frequency rank #28,086, classified as aname. 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 32813, this pair ranks #334,717 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Welles vs wells

Shared letters: elsw. Private to "Welles": -. Private to "wells": -.

"Welles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "wells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wellesewlles · welels · weles · welless · wellse · wleles · wwelles
  • wellsewlls · wellss · wels · welsl · wlels · wwells

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Welles" and "wells" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Welles" is a name and "wells" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Welles" or "wells"?
"wells" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,727 in our English list, against #28,086 for "Welles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list