wokenvswovenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: woken is a verb, woven is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“woken” is a verb and “woven” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,995
“woken” frequency rank
#13,844
“woven” frequency rank
31839
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature woken woven
Definition past participle of wake Fabricated by weaving.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set woken and woven apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
woken
5 ch
woven

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: woken is /ˈwəʊ.kən/ while woven is /ˈwəʊ.vən/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - k in “woken” becomes v in “woven”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31839, 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/. woven is at rank #13,844, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwəʊ.vən/.

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 31839, this pair ranks #342,790 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of woken vs woven

Shared letters: enow. Private to "woken": k. Private to "woven": v.

"woken" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "woven" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wokenowken · wkoen · woekn · wokenn · wokken · wokne · wwoken
  • wovenowven · woevn · wovenn · wovne · wovven · wvoen · wwoven

Frequency comparison

woken#17,995
woven#13,844

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "woken" and "woven" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "woken" is a verb and "woven" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "woken" or "woven"?
"woven" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,844 in our English list, against #17,995 for "woken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering woken vs woven

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “woken”; for an adjective, it's “woven”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “woken” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list