Woolly or wooly?
woolly is an adjective meaning “Made of wool”; wooly is an adjective meaning “Alternative form of woolly”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) woolly is about 3.6 times as common as wooly.
What is the difference between woolly and wooly?
| woolly | wooly | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Made of wool Having a thick, soft texture, as if made of wool informalA sweater or similar garment made of wool | USAlternative form of woolly |
| Example | Put on a woolly jumper and turn down the thermostat | wooly hair |
| Forms | woollier, woolliest | woolier, wooliest |
| Pronunciation | /ˈwʊli/ | not recorded |
| In writing | 1.1 times per million words | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: woolly and wooly in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of woolly and wooly
woolly
- 1
Made of wool
Put on a woolly jumper and turn down the thermostat
- 2
informalA sweater or similar garment made of wool
- 3
derogatoryA woolly back; someone from the area around Liverpool, not from Liverpool itself
- 4
Having a thick, soft texture, as if made of wool
woolly hair
- 5
USslangA sheep not yet shorn
- 6
Unclear, fuzzy, hazy, cloudy
That's the sort of woolly thinking that causes wars to start
- 7
A piece of woolwork
- 8
USinformalUncivilized and unruly
wild and woolly
wooly
- 1
USAlternative form of woolly
wooly hair
- 2
USAlternative form of woolly
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, woolly or wooly?
woolly appears 1.1 times per million words; wooly about once in every 3 million words.
woolly 1.1 times per million wordswooly about once in every 3 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search woolly vs wooly?
“woolly vs wooly” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“wooly vs woolly”, “woolly or wooly”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.