Which to use
“wired” is an adjective and “wives” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,696
- “wired” frequency rank
- #6,318
- “wives” frequency rank
- 16014
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wired | wives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Equipped with wires, so as to connect to a power source or to other electric or electronic equipment; connected by wires. | plural of wife |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set wired and wives apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
wired and wives form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16014, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wired is recorded at frequency rank #9,696, classified as anadj, pronounced /waɪəd/. wives is at rank #6,318, tagged as anoun, pronounced /waɪvz/.
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 16014, this pair ranks #460,439 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wired" and "wives" be used interchangeably?
Remembering wired vs wives
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “wired”; for a noun, it's “wives”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “wired” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable