Which to use
“won” and “wove” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #646
- “won” frequency rank
- #49,728
- “wove” frequency rank
- 50374
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | won | wove |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of win | simple past of weave |
Where the eye mixes won and wove
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses won with wove
A purely visual mix-up. won (/wʌn/) and wove (/wəʊv/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
won is recorded at frequency rank #646, classified as averb, pronounced /wʌn/. wove is at rank #49,728, tagged as averb, pronounced /wəʊv/.
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 50374, this pair ranks #174,897 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of won vs wove
Shared letters: ow. Private to "won": n. Private to "wove": ev.
"won" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "wove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- wove ← owve · woev · wovve · wvoe · wwove
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "won" and "wove" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "won" or "wove"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "won" and "wove" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "won" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wove" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,897 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "won" and "wove" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wile 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 #174,897 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.