# were vs wile

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### were
*verb · IPA /wə(ɹ)/ · frequency rank #52*
second-person singular simple past indicative of be

### wile
*noun · IPA /waɪl/ · frequency rank #46,267*
A trick or stratagem practiced for ensnaring or deception; a sly, insidious artifice

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/were-vs-wile