woldvsworldsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,997
“wold” frequency rank
#4,910
“worlds” frequency rank
47907
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wold worlds
Definition An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor. plural of world

Where the eye mixes wold and worlds

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
wold
6 ch
worlds

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. wold (/wəʊld/) and worlds (/wɝldz/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47907, 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/. worlds is at rank #4,910, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɝldz/.

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 47907, this pair ranks #198,048 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wold vs worlds

Shared letters: dlow. Private to "wold": -. Private to "worlds": rs.

"wold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "worlds" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • woldowld · wlod · wodl · woldd · wolld · wwold
  • worldsowrlds · wolrds · wordls · worldds · worldss · worllds · worlsd · worrlds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wold" and "worlds" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/wəʊld/ versus /wɝldz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "wold" or "worlds"?
"worlds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,910 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