WilkievsWilkinsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,286
“Wilkie” frequency rank
#19,254
“Wilkins” frequency rank
56540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Wilkie Wilkins
Definition A surname originating as a patronymic. A surname originating as a patronymic.

Letter map: Wilkie vs Wilkins

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

6 ch
Wilkie
7 ch
Wilkins

Spelling & dictionary notes on Wilkie vs Wilkins

Wilkie and Wilkins are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Wilkie is recorded at frequency rank #37,286, classified as aname. Wilkins is at rank #19,254, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈwɪlkɪnz/.

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 56540, this pair ranks #125,542 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Wilkie vs Wilkins

Shared letters: iklw. Private to "Wilkie": e. Private to "Wilkins": ns.

"Wilkie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "Wilkins" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Wilkie ← iwlkie · wiklie · wilike · wilkei · wilkkie · willkie · wlikie · wwilkie
  • Wilkins ← iwlkins · wiklins · wilikns · wilkinns · wilkinss · wilkisn · wilkkins · wilknis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Wilkie" for "Wilkins" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "Wilkie" vs "Wilkins" - which ranks higher?
"Wilkins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,254 in our English list, against #37,286 for "Wilkie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Wilkie" and "Wilkins".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Wilkie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Wilkins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #125,542 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Wilkie" and "Wilkins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wile vs Wilkie". 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 #125,542 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