Which to use
“works” is a noun and “worst” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #522
- “works” frequency rank
- #1,259
- “worst” frequency rank
- 1781
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | works | worst |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of work in its countable senses | superlative form of bad: most bad |
Where the eye mixes works and worst
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: works is /wɜːks/ while worst is /wɜːst/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
works is recorded at frequency rank #522, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɜːks/. worst is at rank #1,259, tagged as anadj, pronounced /wɜːst/.
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 1781, this pair ranks #526,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of works vs worst
Shared letters: orsw. Private to "works": k. Private to "worst": t.
"works" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "worst" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC