WilesvswritesConfusable pair

Quick tell: Wiles is a name, writes is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wiles” is a name and “writes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,472
“Wiles” frequency rank
#3,920
“writes” frequency rank
45392
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wiles writes
Definition A surname transferred from the nickname. A patronymic form of Wile. third-person singular simple present indicative of write

Letter map: Wiles vs writes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Wiles and writes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
Wiles
6 ch
writes

Role in the sentence - Wiles and writes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Wiles is aname and writesaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wiles is recorded at frequency rank #41,472, classified as aname. writes is at rank #3,920, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹaɪts/.

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 45392, this pair ranks #221,662 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Wiles vs writes

Shared letters: eisw. Private to "Wiles": l. Private to "writes": rt.

"Wiles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "writes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wilesiwles · wiels · wiless · willes · wilse · wlies · wwiles
  • writesrwites · wirtes · wriets · writess · writse · writtes · wrrites · wrties

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Wiles" for "writes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wiles" is a name and "writes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Wiles" or "writes"?
"writes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,920 in our English list, against #41,472 for "Wiles". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "Wiles" and "writes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wiles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "writes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,662 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wiles" and "writes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wiles vs Willey". 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 #221,662 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