wickedvswingedConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,305
“wicked” frequency rank
#16,387
“winged” frequency rank
23692
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wicked winged
Definition Evil or mischievous by nature; morally reprehensible. Having wings.

Where the eye mixes wicked and winged

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wicked and winged follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
wicked
6 ch
winged

Look-alike desk: wicked vs winged

A purely visual mix-up. wicked (/ˈwɪkɪd/) and winged (/wɪŋɪd/) 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 23692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wicked is recorded at frequency rank #7,305, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈwɪkɪd/. winged is at rank #16,387, tagged as anadj, pronounced /wɪŋɪd/.

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 23692, this pair ranks #407,465 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wicked vs winged

Shared letters: deiw. Private to "wicked": ck. Private to "winged": gn.

"wicked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "winged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wicked ← iwcked · wciked · wiccked · wicekd · wickde · wickedd · wickked · wikced
  • winged ← iwnged · wigned · winegd · wingde · wingedd · wingged · winnged · wniged

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "wicked" and "winged" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈwɪkɪd/ versus /wɪŋɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "wicked" vs "winged" - which ranks higher?
"wicked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,305 in our English list, against #16,387 for "winged". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "wicked" and "winged" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wicked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "winged" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #407,465 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wicked" and "winged" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whined vs winged". 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 #407,465 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