Which to use
“woe” is a noun and “wove” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,509
- “woe” frequency rank
- #49,728
- “wove” frequency rank
- 69237
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | woe | wove |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness. | simple past of weave |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set woe and wove apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: woe is /wəʊ/ while wove is /wəʊv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
woe is recorded at frequency rank #19,509, classified as anoun, pronounced /wəʊ/. wove is at rank #49,728, tagged as averb, pronounced /wəʊv/.
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 69237, this pair ranks #55,438 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of woe vs wove
Shared letters: eow. Private to "woe": -. Private to "wove": v.
"woe" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "wove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- wove ← owve · woev · wovve · wvoe · wwove
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "woe" and "wove" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "woe" or "wove"?
Remembering woe vs wove
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “woe”; for a verb, it's “wove”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “woe” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable