wovevswowWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: wove is a verb, wow is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wove” is a verb and “wow” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,728
“wove” frequency rank
#1,178
“wow” frequency rank
50906
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wove wow
Definition simple past of weave An indication of excitement, surprise, astonishment, or pleasure.

Where the eye mixes wove and wow

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
wove
3 ch
wow

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wove is /wəʊv/ while wow is /waʊ/. 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 intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50906, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wove is recorded at frequency rank #49,728, classified as averb, pronounced /wəʊv/. wow is at rank #1,178, tagged as anintj, pronounced /waʊ/.

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 50906, this pair ranks #170,117 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wove vs wow

Shared letters: ow. Private to "wove": ev. Private to "wow": -.

"wove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "wow" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • woveowve · woev · wovve · wvoe · wwove

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wove" and "wow" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wove" is a verb and "wow" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "wove" or "wow"?
"wow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,178 in our English list, against #49,728 for "wove". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list