willvswithWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: will is a verb, with is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“will” is a verb and “with” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40
“will” frequency rank
#14
“with” frequency rank
54
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature will with
Definition Used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall. Against.

Where the eye mixes will and with

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
will
4 ch
with

Look-alike desk: will vs with

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: will is /wɪl/ while with is /wɪð/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

will is recorded at frequency rank #40, classified as averb, pronounced /wɪl/. with is at rank #14, tagged as aprep, pronounced /wɪð/.

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 54, this pair ranks #529,952 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of will vs with

Shared letters: iw. Private to "will": l. Private to "with": ht.

"will" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "with" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • williwll · wil · wlil · wwill
  • withiwth · wiht · withh · witth · wtih · wwith

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "will" and "with" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "will" is a verb and "with" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "will" vs "with" - which ranks higher?
"with" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14 in our English list, against #40 for "will". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "will" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "with" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #529,952 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "will" and "with" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "will 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 #529,952 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