Which to use
“wok” and “wort” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,773
- “wok” frequency rank
- #33,912
- “wort” frequency rank
- 71685
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wok | wort |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A large, round-bottomed cooking pan used in East Asian cooking. | Now chiefly as the second element in the names of plants: a plant used for food or medicine. |
Where the eye mixes wok and wort
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. wok runs 3 letters (CVC) against wort's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between wok and wort
A purely visual mix-up. wok (/wɒk/) and wort (/wɜːt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71685, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wok is recorded at frequency rank #37,773, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɒk/. wort is at rank #33,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɜːt/.
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 71685, this pair ranks #45,827 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wok vs wort
Shared letters: ow. Private to "wok": k. Private to "wort": rt.
"wok" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "wort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- wort ← owrt · worrt · wortt · wotr · wrot · wwort
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wok" for "wort" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "wok" or "wort" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "wok" and "wort" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wok" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,827 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wok" and "wort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wok vs wove". 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 #45,827 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.