Which to use
“wort” is a noun and “wot” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,912
- “wort” frequency rank
- #28,090
- “wot” frequency rank
- 62002
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wort | wot |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Now chiefly as the second element in the names of plants: a plant used for food or medicine. | To know (in the sense of knowing a fact). |
Where the eye mixes wort and wot
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between wort and wot
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wort is /wɜːt/ while wot is /wɔt/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wort is recorded at frequency rank #33,912, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɜːt/. wot is at rank #28,090, tagged as averb, pronounced /wɔt/.
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 62002, this pair ranks #90,940 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wort vs wot
Shared letters: otw. Private to "wort": r. Private to "wot": -.
"wort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "wot" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- wort ← owrt · worrt · wortt · wotr · wrot · wwort
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "wort" and "wot" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "wort" or "wot" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wort" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #90,940 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wort" and "wot" 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 #90,940 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.