Which to use
“wold” and “work” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,997
- “wold” frequency rank
- #116
- “work” frequency rank
- 43113
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wold | work |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor. | Employment. |
Where the eye mixes wold and work
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: wold vs work
A purely visual mix-up. wold (/wəʊld/) and work (/wɜː(ɹ)k/) 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 43113, 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/. work is at rank #116, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɜː(ɹ)k/.
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 43113, this pair ranks #243,103 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wold vs work
Shared letters: ow. Private to "wold": dl. Private to "work": kr.
"wold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "work" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wold" for "work" ever safe?
Frequency check: "wold" vs "work" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "wold" and "work" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "work" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #243,103 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wold" and "work" 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 #243,103 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.