Which to use
“wold” and “wool” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,997
- “wold” frequency rank
- #8,228
- “wool” frequency rank
- 51225
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wold | wool |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor. | The hair of the sheep, llama and some other ruminants. |
Where the eye mixes wold and wool
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between wold and wool
A purely visual mix-up. wold (/wəʊld/) and wool (/wʊl/) 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 51225, 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/. wool is at rank #8,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wʊl/.
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 51225, this pair ranks #167,264 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wold vs wool
Shared letters: low. Private to "wold": d. Private to "wool": -.
"wold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "wool" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "wold" and "wool" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "wold" or "wool" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wool" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #167,264 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wold" and "wool" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wold 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 #167,264 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.