Which to use
“worse” is an adjective and “wort” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,381
- “worse” frequency rank
- #33,912
- “wort” frequency rank
- 35293
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | worse | wort |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | comparative form of bad: more bad | Now chiefly as the second element in the names of plants: a plant used for food or medicine. |
Where the eye mixes worse and wort
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. worse runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against wort's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between worse and wort
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: worse is /wɜːs/ while wort is /wɜːt/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
worse is recorded at frequency rank #1,381, classified as anadj, pronounced /wɜːs/. wort is at rank #33,912, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɜːt/.
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 35293, this pair ranks #313,205 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of worse vs wort
Shared letters: orw. Private to "worse": es. Private to "wort": t.
"worse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "wort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "worse" for "wort" ever safe?
Which is more common, "worse" or "wort"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "worse" and "wort" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "worse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #313,205 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "worse" and "wort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wort vs wove". 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 #313,205 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.