Which to use
“wore” is a verb and “woven” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,422
- “wore” frequency rank
- #13,844
- “woven” frequency rank
- 18266
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wore | woven |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past of wear | Fabricated by weaving. |
Where the eye mixes wore and woven
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses wore with woven
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wore is /wɔː/ while woven is /ˈwəʊ.vən/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18266, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wore is recorded at frequency rank #4,422, classified as averb, pronounced /wɔː/. woven is at rank #13,844, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwəʊ.vən/.
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 18266, this pair ranks #446,026 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of wore vs woven
Shared letters: eow. Private to "wore": r. Private to "woven": nv.
"wore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "woven" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wore" and "woven" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "wore" or "woven" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "woven" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #446,026 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wore" and "woven" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wove vs woven". 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 #446,026 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.