wingvswinsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,471
“wing” frequency rank
#2,056
“wins” frequency rank
4527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wing wins
Definition An appendage of an animal's (bird, bat, insect) body that enables it to fly. plural of win

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wing and wins apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
wing
4 ch
wins

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

wing and wins form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by a single letter - g in “wing” becomes s in “wins” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wing is recorded at frequency rank #2,471, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɪŋ/. wins is at rank #2,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɪnz/.

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 4527, this pair ranks #518,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Frequency comparison

wing#2,471
wins#2,056

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wing" and "wins" be used interchangeably?
No, "wing" and "wins" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering wing vs wins

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wing” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list