werkvsworeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,860
“werk” frequency rank
#4,422
“wore” frequency rank
51282
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature werk wore
Definition Alternative form of work. simple past of wear

Letter map: werk vs wore

Shared letters muted; letters that set werk and wore apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. werk (CVCC) and wore (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
werk
4 ch
wore

Corpus notes: werk and wore

werk and wore are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

werk is recorded at frequency rank #46,860, classified as averb. wore is at rank #4,422, tagged as averb, pronounced /wɔː/.

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 51282, this pair ranks #166,802 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of werk vs wore

Shared letters: erw. Private to "werk": k. Private to "wore": o.

"werk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • werk ← ewrk · wekr · werkk · werrk · wrek · wwerk
  • wore ← owre · woer · worre · wroe · wwore

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "werk" for "wore" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "werk" vs "wore" - which ranks higher?
"wore" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,422 in our English list, against #46,860 for "werk". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "werk" and "wore". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "werk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #166,802 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "werk" and "wore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wea vs werk". 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 #166,802 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