Which to use
“winked” is a verb and “wired” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,245
- “winked” frequency rank
- #9,696
- “wired” frequency rank
- 47941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | winked | wired |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of wink | Equipped with wires, so as to connect to a power source or to other electric or electronic equipment; connected by wires. |
Where the eye mixes winked and wired
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: winked vs wired
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: winked is /wɪŋkt/ while wired is /waɪəd/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
winked is recorded at frequency rank #38,245, classified as averb, pronounced /wɪŋkt/. wired is at rank #9,696, tagged as anadj, pronounced /waɪəd/.
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 47941, this pair ranks #197,755 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of winked vs wired
Shared letters: deiw. Private to "winked": kn. Private to "wired": r.
"winked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "wired" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "winked" for "wired" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "winked" or "wired" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "winked" and "wired" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "winked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wired" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #197,755 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "winked" and "wired" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whined vs winked". 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 #197,755 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.