wontvswoveWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wont is a noun, wove is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wont” is a noun and “wove” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,202
“wont” frequency rank
#49,728
“wove” frequency rank
55930
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wont wove
Definition One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice. simple past of weave

Where the eye mixes wont and wove

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
wont
4 ch
wove

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wont is /wəʊnt/ while wove is /wəʊv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55930, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wont is recorded at frequency rank #6,202, classified as anoun, pronounced /wəʊnt/. 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 55930, this pair ranks #129,893 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of wont vs wove

Shared letters: ow. Private to "wont": nt. Private to "wove": ev.

"wont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "wove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wontownt · wnot · wonnt · wontt · wotn · wwont
  • woveowve · woev · wovve · wvoe · wwove

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wont" and "wove" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wont" is a noun and "wove" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wont" or "wove"?
"wont" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,202 in our English list, against #49,728 for "wove". 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