winvswringTell them apart

Which to use

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

#408
“win” frequency rank
#39,654
“wring” frequency rank
40062
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature win wring
Definition To conquer, defeat. Often followed by out: to squeeze or twist (something moist) tightly so that liquid is forced out.

Where the eye mixes win and wring

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
win
5 ch
wring

Look-alike desk: win vs wring

A purely visual mix-up. win (/wɪn/) and wring (/ɹɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40062, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

win is recorded at frequency rank #408, classified as averb, pronounced /wɪn/. wring is at rank #39,654, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹɪŋ/.

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 40062, this pair ranks #271,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of win vs wring

Shared letters: inw. Private to "win": -. Private to "wring": gr.

"win" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "wring" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wringrwing · wirng · wrign · wringg · wrinng · wrnig · wrring · wwring

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "win" and "wring" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/wɪn/ versus /ɹɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "win" vs "wring" - which ranks higher?
"win" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #408 in our English list, against #39,654 for "wring". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "win" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "win" and "wring" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whoring vs wring". 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 #271,025 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