wince
/wɪns/
"wince" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wince” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #46,866 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #46,866
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sudden movement or gesture of shrinking away.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wince |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wɪns/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #46,866 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wince” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wince is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wɪns/. Corpus data places it at rank #46,866 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for wince, with forms such as "iwnce", "wicne", and "wincce". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wind", "wine", "wins", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English wyncen, from Anglo-Norman winchir (compare Old French guenchir), from Frankish *wankjan, related to *winkijan (“to flex, bend”). See also German winken. The correct English form is wince, spelled W-I-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1A sudden movement or gesture of shrinking away.
- 2A reel used in dyeing, steeping, or washing cloth; a winch. It is placed over the division wall between two wince pits so as to allow the cloth to descend into either compartment at will.
Etymology
From Middle English wyncen, from Anglo-Norman winchir (compare Old French guenchir), from Frankish *wankjan, related to *winkijan (“to flex, bend”). See also German winken.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iwnce,wicne,wincce,winec,winnce,wnice,wwince
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wince - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “wince”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /wɪns/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wind” - see the side-by-side comparison. wince vs wind
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.