Which to use
“winked” and “wished” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,245
- “winked” frequency rank
- #7,191
- “wished” frequency rank
- 45436
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | winked | wished |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of wink | simple past and past participle of wish |
Where the eye mixes winked and wished
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: winked vs wished
A purely visual mix-up. winked (/wɪŋkt/) and wished (/wɪʃt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45436, 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/. wished is at rank #7,191, tagged as averb, pronounced /wɪʃt/.
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 45436, this pair ranks #221,280 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of winked vs wished
Shared letters: deiw. Private to "winked": kn. Private to "wished": hs.
"winked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "wished" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "winked" and "wished" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "winked" or "wished"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "winked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wished" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #221,280 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "winked" and "wished" 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 #221,280 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.