Which to use
“what” is a determiner and “wont” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46
- “what” frequency rank
- #6,202
- “wont” frequency rank
- 6248
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | what | wont |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities. | One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice. |
Where the eye mixes what and wont
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between what and wont
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: what is /wɒt/ while wont is /wəʊnt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
what is recorded at frequency rank #46, classified as adet, pronounced /wɒt/. wont is at rank #6,202, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wəʊnt/.
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 6248, this pair ranks #512,151 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of what vs wont
Shared letters: tw. Private to "what": ah. Private to "wont": no.
"what" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "wont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "what" for "wont" ever safe?
Which is more common, "what" or "wont"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "what" and "wont" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "what" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wont" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #512,151 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "what" and "wont" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wont vs wove". 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 #512,151 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.