# wishful vs wistful

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### wishful
*adjective · IPA /ˈwɪʃfəl/ · frequency rank #25,258*
Wished-for; desired, wanted.

### wistful
*adjective · IPA /ˈwɪstfəl/ · frequency rank #41,475*
Full of longing or yearning.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/wishful-vs-wistful