Which to use
“woken” and “wore” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,995
- “woken” frequency rank
- #4,422
- “wore” frequency rank
- 22417
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | woken | wore |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of wake | simple past of wear |
Where the eye mixes woken and wore
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between woken and wore
A purely visual mix-up. woken (/ˈwəʊ.kən/) and wore (/wɔː/) 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 22417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
woken is recorded at frequency rank #17,995, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈwəʊ.kən/. wore is at rank #4,422, tagged as averb, pronounced /wɔː/.
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 22417, this pair ranks #416,738 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of woken vs wore
Shared letters: eow. Private to "woken": kn. Private to "wore": r.
"woken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "wore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "woken" and "wore" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "woken" vs "wore" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "woken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,738 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "woken" and "wore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "woken 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 #416,738 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.