Which to use
“wick” is a noun and “wicked” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,737
- “wick” frequency rank
- #7,305
- “wicked” frequency rank
- 26042
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wick | wicked |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A braid or bundle of fibre or other porous material (now generally twisted or woven cotton) in a candle, kerosene heater, oil lamp, etc., that draws up a liquid fuel (such as melted tallow or wax, or oil) at one end, to be ignited at the other end to produce a flame. | Evil or mischievous by nature; morally reprehensible. |
Where the eye mixes wick and wicked
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wick runs 4 letters (CVCC) against wicked's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between wick and wicked
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wick is /wɪk/ while wicked is /ˈwɪkɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “wick” sits inside “wicked”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wick is recorded at frequency rank #18,737, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɪk/. wicked is at rank #7,305, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwɪkɪd/.
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 26042, this pair ranks #389,653 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wick vs wicked
Shared letters: cikw. Private to "wick": -. Private to "wicked": de.
"wick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "wicked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wick" and "wicked" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "wick" vs "wicked" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wicked" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,653 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wick" and "wicked" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wac vs wick". 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 #389,653 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.