wingedvswinnerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#16,387
“winged” frequency rank
#1,681
“winner” frequency rank
18068
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature winged winner
Definition Having wings. One who has won or often wins.

Where the eye mixes winged and winner

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
winged
6 ch
winner

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: winged is /wɪŋɪd/ while winner is /ˈwɪnə/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18068, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

winged is recorded at frequency rank #16,387, classified as anadj, pronounced /wɪŋɪd/. winner is at rank #1,681, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɪnə/.

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 18068, this pair ranks #447,316 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of winged vs winner

Shared letters: einw. Private to "winged": dg. Private to "winner": r.

"winged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "winner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wingediwnged · wigned · winegd · wingde · wingedd · wingged · winnged · wniged
  • winneriwnner · winenr · winer · winnerr · winnre · wniner · wwinner

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "winged" and "winner" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "winged" is an adjective and "winner" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "winged" or "winner"?
"winner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,681 in our English list, against #16,387 for "winged". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "winged" and "winner". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "winged" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "winner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #447,316 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "winged" and "winner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whined vs winged". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list