wovevswroteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“wove” and “wrote” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,728
“wove” frequency rank
#984
“wrote” frequency rank
50712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wove wrote
Definition simple past of weave simple past of write

Where the eye mixes wove and wrote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
wove
5 ch
wrote

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. wove (/wəʊv/) and wrote (/ɹəʊt/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50712, 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/. wrote is at rank #984, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɹəʊt/.

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 50712, this pair ranks #171,848 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wove vs wrote

Shared letters: eow. Private to "wove": v. Private to "wrote": rt.

"wove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "wrote" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • woveowve · woev · wovve · wvoe · wwove
  • wroterwote · worte · wroet · wrotte · wrrote · wrtoe · wwrote

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wove" and "wrote" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/wəʊv/ versus /ɹəʊt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "wove" or "wrote"?
"wrote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #984 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