Which to use
“wick” and “wish” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,737
- “wick” frequency rank
- #685
- “wish” frequency rank
- 19422
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wick | wish |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | A desire, hope, or longing for something or for something to happen. |
Where the eye mixes wick and wish
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between wick and wish
A purely visual mix-up. wick (/wɪk/) and wish (/wɪʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19422, 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/. wish is at rank #685, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɪʃ/.
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 19422, this pair ranks #438,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wick vs wish
Shared letters: iw. Private to "wick": ck. Private to "wish": hs.
"wick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "wish" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "wick" and "wish" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "wick" or "wish" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "wick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wish" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wick" and "wish" 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 #438,283 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.