wiltedvswinterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: wilted is a adjective, winter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,423
“wilted” frequency rank
#1,380
“winter” frequency rank
48803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wilted winter
Definition Drooping, typically due to lack of water. Traditionally the fourth of the four seasons, typically regarded as spanning either the period between the winter solstice to the spring equinox, or the months of December, January, and February in temperate and polar regions of the Northern Hemisphere and the months of June, July, and August in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the time when the sun is lowest in the sky, resulting in short days, and the time of year with the lowest atmospheric temperatures for the region.

Letter map: wilted vs winter

Shared letters muted; letters that set wilted and winter apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. wilted and winter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
wilted
6 ch
winter

Grammar separator: wilted vs winter

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wilted is anadjective and winteranoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wilted is recorded at frequency rank #47,423, classified as anadj. winter is at rank #1,380, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪntə/.

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 48803, this pair ranks #189,658 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wilted vs winter

Shared letters: eitw. Private to "wilted": dl. Private to "winter": nr.

"wilted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "winter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wiltediwlted · wiletd · willted · wiltde · wiltedd · wiltted · witled · wlited
  • winteriwnter · winetr · winnter · winterr · wintre · wintter · witner · wniter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wilted" and "winter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wilted" is an adjective and "winter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wilted" or "winter"?
"winter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,380 in our English list, against #47,423 for "wilted". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "wilted" and "winter".

  • Full dictionary entry for "wilted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "winter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,658 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wilted" and "winter" 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 #189,658 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