woldvswontWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“wold” and “wont” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,997
“wold” frequency rank
#6,202
“wont” frequency rank
49199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wold wont
Definition An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor. One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.

Where the eye mixes wold and wont

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
wold
4 ch
wont

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. wold (/wəʊld/) and wont (/wəʊnt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wold is recorded at frequency rank #42,997, classified as anoun, pronounced /wəʊld/. wont is at rank #6,202, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wəʊnt/.

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 49199, this pair ranks #185,860 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wold vs wont

Shared letters: ow. Private to "wold": dl. Private to "wont": nt.

"wold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • woldowld · wlod · wodl · woldd · wolld · wwold
  • wontownt · wnot · wonnt · wontt · wotn · wwont

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wold" and "wont" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/wəʊld/ versus /wəʊnt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "wold" or "wont"?
"wont" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,202 in our English list, against #42,997 for "wold". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list