Which to use
“widow” and “windows” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,317
- “widow” frequency rank
- #1,977
- “windows” frequency rank
- 8294
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | widow | windows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person whose spouse is absent: | plural of window |
Where the eye mixes widow and windows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses widow with windows
A purely visual mix-up. widow (/ˈwɪd.əʊ/) and windows (/ˈwɪndəʊz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
widow is recorded at frequency rank #6,317, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪd.əʊ/. windows is at rank #1,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪndəʊz/.
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 8294, this pair ranks #503,207 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of widow vs windows
Shared letters: diow. Private to "widow": -. Private to "windows": ns.
"widow" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "windows" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "widow" and "windows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "widow" or "windows"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "widow" and "windows" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "widow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "windows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #503,207 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "widow" and "windows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wid vs widow". 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 #503,207 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.