Which to use
“work” and “works” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #116
- “work” frequency rank
- #522
- “works” frequency rank
- 638
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | work | works |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Employment. | plural of work in its countable senses |
Where the eye mixes work and works
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: work vs works
A purely visual mix-up. work (/wɜː(ɹ)k/) and works (/wɜːks/) 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 extra letter(s) - “work” sits inside “works”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 638, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
work is recorded at frequency rank #116, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɜː(ɹ)k/. works is at rank #522, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɜːks/.
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 638, this pair ranks #529,076 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of work vs works
Shared letters: korw. Private to "work": -. Private to "works": s.
"work" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "works" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "work" and "works" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "work" or "works"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "work" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "works" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #529,076 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "work" and "works" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wordy vs works". 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 #529,076 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.