wreckedvswrecksConfusable pair

Quick tell: wrecked is a adjective, wrecks is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“wrecked” is an adjective and “wrecks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,718
“wrecked” frequency rank
#25,978
“wrecks” frequency rank
38696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wrecked wrecks
Definition Destroyed, usually in an accident; damaged to the point of unusability. plural of wreck

Letter map: wrecked vs wrecks

Shared letters muted; letters that set wrecked and wrecks apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. wrecked runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against wrecks's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
wrecked
6 ch
wrecks

Role in the sentence - wrecked and wrecks

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: wrecked is anadjective and wrecksanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wrecked is recorded at frequency rank #12,718, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɹɛkt/. wrecks is at rank #25,978, tagged as anoun.

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 38696, this pair ranks #283,645 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of wrecked vs wrecks

Shared letters: cekrw. Private to "wrecked": d. Private to "wrecks": s.

"wrecked" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "wrecks" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wrecked ← rwecked · wercked · wrceked · wreccked · wrecekd · wreckde · wreckedd · wreckked
  • wrecks ← rwecks · wercks · wrceks · wreccks · wreckks · wreckss · wrecsk · wrekcs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "wrecked" for "wrecks" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "wrecked" is an adjective and "wrecks" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "wrecked" vs "wrecks" - which ranks higher?
"wrecked" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,718 in our English list, against #25,978 for "wrecks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "wrecked" vs "wrecks" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wrecked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wrecks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #283,645 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wrecked" and "wrecks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wrecker vs wrecks". 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 #283,645 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list