Which to use
“words” is a noun and “worry” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #566
- “words” frequency rank
- #1,548
- “worry” frequency rank
- 2114
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | words | worry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of word | To be troubled; to give way to mental anxiety or doubt. |
Where the eye mixes words and worry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: words is /wɜːdz/ while worry is /ˈwʌ.ɹi/. 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 2114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
words is recorded at frequency rank #566, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɜːdz/. worry is at rank #1,548, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈwʌ.ɹi/.
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 2114, this pair ranks #525,831 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of words vs worry
Shared letters: orw. Private to "words": ds. Private to "worry": y.
"words" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "worry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV