Which to use
“wished” and “wither” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,191
- “wished” frequency rank
- #28,431
- “wither” frequency rank
- 35622
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wished | wither |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of wish | To shrivel, droop or dry up, especially from lack of water. |
Where the eye mixes wished and wither
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wished and wither follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between wished and wither
A purely visual mix-up. wished (/wɪʃt/) and wither (/ˈwɪðɚ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wished is recorded at frequency rank #7,191, classified as averb, pronounced /wɪʃt/. wither is at rank #28,431, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈwɪðɚ/.
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 35622, this pair ranks #310,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wished vs wither
Shared letters: ehiw. Private to "wished": ds. Private to "wither": rt.
"wished" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "wither" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wished" and "wither" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "wished" or "wither"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "wished" and "wither" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wished" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wither" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #310,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wished" and "wither" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Wilmer vs wither". 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 #310,398 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.