Which to use
“wrinkle” is a noun and “wrinkled” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,961
- “wrinkle” frequency rank
- #29,147
- “wrinkled” frequency rank
- 54108
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wrinkle | wrinkled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A small furrow, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface. | Uneven, with many furrows and prominent points, often in reference to the skin or hide of animals. |
Where the eye mixes wrinkle and wrinkled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. wrinkle runs 7 letters (CCVCCCV) against wrinkled's 8 (CCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: wrinkle vs wrinkled
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wrinkle is /ˈɹɪŋkl̩/ while wrinkled is /ˈɹɪŋkl̩d/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “wrinkle” sits inside “wrinkled”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wrinkle is recorded at frequency rank #24,961, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹɪŋkl̩/. wrinkled is at rank #29,147, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɹɪŋkl̩d/.
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 54108, this pair ranks #143,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wrinkle vs wrinkled
Shared letters: eiklnrw. Private to "wrinkle": -. Private to "wrinkled": d.
"wrinkle" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV · "wrinkled" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wrinkle" for "wrinkled" ever safe?
Frequency check: "wrinkle" vs "wrinkled" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "wrinkle" and "wrinkled" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wrinkle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wrinkled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #143,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wrinkle" and "wrinkled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wriggle vs wrinkle". 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 #143,623 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.