Which to use
“winking” is a noun and “wiping” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,397
- “winking” frequency rank
- #16,388
- “wiping” frequency rank
- 52785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | winking | wiping |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of someone who winks. | present participle and gerund of wipe |
Letter map: winking vs wiping
Shared letters muted; letters that set winking and wiping apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. winking runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against wiping's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - winking and wiping
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: winking is anoun and wipingaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
winking is recorded at frequency rank #36,397, classified as anoun. wiping is at rank #16,388, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈwaɪpɪŋ/.
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 52785, this pair ranks #154,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of winking vs wiping
Shared letters: ginw. Private to "winking": k. Private to "wiping": p.
"winking" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "wiping" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "winking" for "wiping" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "winking" or "wiping" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "winking" and "wiping".
- Full dictionary entry for "winking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wiping" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "winking" and "wiping" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "winging vs winking". 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 #154,239 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.