windvswipedTell them apart

Quick tell: wind is a noun, wiped is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wind” is a noun and “wiped” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,547
“wind” frequency rank
#8,878
“wiped” frequency rank
10425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wind wiped
Definition Real or perceived movement of atmospheric air usually caused by convection or differences in air pressure. simple past and past participle of wipe

Where the eye mixes wind and wiped

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

4 ch
wind
5 ch
wiped

Why the eye confuses wind with wiped

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wind is /ˈwɪnd/ while wiped is /waɪpt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wind is recorded at frequency rank #1,547, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪnd/. wiped is at rank #8,878, tagged as averb, pronounced /waɪpt/.

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 10425, this pair ranks #492,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wind vs wiped

Shared letters: diw. Private to "wind": n. Private to "wiped": ep.

"wind" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wiped" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • windiwnd · widn · windd · winnd · wnid · wwind
  • wipediwped · wiepd · wipde · wipedd · wipped · wpied · wwiped

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wind" for "wiped" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wind" is a noun and "wiped" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "wind" or "wiped" show up more?
"wind" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,547 in our English list, against #8,878 for "wiped". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "wind" and "wiped" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wind" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wiped" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #492,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wind" and "wiped" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whined vs wiped". 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 #492,398 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