Which to use
“winters” is an adverb and “wintry” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,532
- “winters” frequency rank
- #40,521
- “wintry” frequency rank
- 53053
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | winters | wintry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In the winter. | Suggestive or characteristic of winter; cold, stormy. |
Letter map: winters vs wintry
Shared letters muted; letters that set winters and wintry apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. winters runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against wintry's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - winters and wintry
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: winters is anadverb and wintryanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
winters is recorded at frequency rank #12,532, classified as anadv. wintry is at rank #40,521, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwɪnt(ə)ɹɪ/.
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 53053, this pair ranks #152,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of winters vs wintry
Shared letters: inrtw. Private to "winters": es. Private to "wintry": y.
"winters" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "wintry" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "winters" and "wintry" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "winters" or "wintry" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "winters" and "wintry". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "winters" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wintry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #152,068 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "winters" and "wintry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Winton vs wintry". 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 #152,068 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.