Which to use
“winked” is a verb and “witted” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,245
- “winked” frequency rank
- #34,749
- “witted” frequency rank
- 72994
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | winked | witted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of wink | having a specified form of wit (intellectual ability) |
Where the eye mixes winked and witted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. winked and witted follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: winked vs witted
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: winked is /wɪŋkt/ while witted is /ˈwɪtɪd/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72994, 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/. witted is at rank #34,749, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwɪtɪd/.
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 72994, this pair ranks #41,098 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of winked vs witted
Shared letters: deiw. Private to "winked": kn. Private to "witted": t.
"winked" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "witted" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "winked" for "witted" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "winked" or "witted" show up more?
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 "witted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #41,098 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "winked" and "witted" 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 #41,098 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.