WilfredvswiltedWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Wilfred is a name, wilted is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Wilfred” is a name and “wilted” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,699
“Wilfred” frequency rank
#47,423
“wilted” frequency rank
75122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wilfred wilted
Definition A male given name from Old English, popular in the U.K. in the early twentieth century. Drooping, typically due to lack of water.

Letter map: Wilfred vs wilted

Shared letters muted; letters that set Wilfred and wilted apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. Wilfred runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against wilted's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Wilfred
6 ch
wilted

Grammar separator: Wilfred vs wilted

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Wilfred is aname and wiltedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wilfred is recorded at frequency rank #27,699, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈwɪlfɹɪd/. wilted is at rank #47,423, tagged as anadj.

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 75122, this pair ranks #34,123 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Wilfred vs wilted

Shared letters: deilw. Private to "Wilfred": fr. Private to "wilted": t.

"Wilfred" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "wilted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wilfrediwlfred · wiflred · wilferd · wilffred · wilfrde · wilfredd · wilfrred · willfred
  • wiltediwlted · wiletd · willted · wiltde · wiltedd · wiltted · witled · wlited

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Wilfred" and "wilted" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Wilfred" is a name and "wilted" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Wilfred" or "wilted"?
"Wilfred" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,699 in our English list, against #47,423 for "wilted". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Wilfred" and "wilted". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wilfred" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wilted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,123 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wilfred" and "wilted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Willey vs wilted". 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 #34,123 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