wiringvswrongConfusable pair

Quick tell: wiring is a verb, wrong is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wiring” is a verb and “wrong” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,457
“wiring” frequency rank
#409
“wrong” frequency rank
14866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wiring wrong
Definition present participle and gerund of wire Incorrect or untrue.

Letter map: wiring vs wrong

Shared letters muted; letters that set wiring and wrong apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
wiring
5 ch
wrong

Grammar separator: wiring vs wrong

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wiring is averb and wronganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wiring is recorded at frequency rank #14,457, classified as averb. wrong is at rank #409, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɹɒŋ/.

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 14866, this pair ranks #467,478 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of wiring vs wrong

Shared letters: gnrw. Private to "wiring": i. Private to "wrong": o.

"wiring" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "wrong" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wiringiwring · wiirng · wirign · wiringg · wirinng · wirnig · wirring · wriing
  • wrongrwong · worng · wrnog · wrogn · wrongg · wronng · wrrong · wwrong

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wiring" for "wrong" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wiring" is a verb and "wrong" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "wiring" or "wrong" show up more?
"wrong" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #409 in our English list, against #14,457 for "wiring". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "wiring" and "wrong". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wiring" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wrong" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #467,478 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wiring" and "wrong" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whoring vs wiring". 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 #467,478 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list