whole vs wove, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“whole” is an adjective and “wove” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#333
“whole” frequency rank: #49,728
“wove” frequency rank: 50061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	whole	wove
Definition	Entire, undivided.	simple past of weave

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set whole and wove apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

whole

4 ch

wove

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: whole is /həʊl/ while wove is /wəʊv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

whole is recorded at frequency rank #333, classified as anadj, pronounced /həʊl/. wove is at rank #49,728, tagged as averb, pronounced /wəʊv/.

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 50061, this pair ranks #177,725 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of whole vs wove

Shared letters: eow. Private to "whole": hl. Private to "wove": v.

"whole" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "wove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

whole ← hwole · whhole · whloe · whoel · wholle · wohle · wwhole
wove ← owve · woev · wovve · wvoe · wwove

Frequency comparison

whole#333

wove#49,728

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "whole" and "wove" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "whole" is an adjective and "wove" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "whole" or "wove"?

"whole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #333 in our English list, against #49,728 for "wove". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering whole vs wove

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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