Which to use
“wold” and “worm” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,997
- “wold” frequency rank
- #10,156
- “worm” frequency rank
- 53153
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wold | worm |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor. | A generally tubular invertebrate of the annelid phylum; an earthworm. |
Where the eye mixes wold and worm
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between wold and worm
A purely visual mix-up. wold (/wəʊld/) and worm (/wɜːm/) 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 53153, 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/. worm is at rank #10,156, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɜːm/.
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 53153, this pair ranks #151,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wold vs worm
Shared letters: ow. Private to "wold": dl. Private to "worm": mr.
"wold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "worm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "wold" and "worm" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "wold" or "worm"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "wold" and "worm" 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 "worm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #151,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wold" and "worm" 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 #151,323 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.