work
/wɜː(ɹ)k/
"work" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“work” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #116 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #116
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Employment.
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 | work |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /wɜː(ɹ)k/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #116 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “work” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for work is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /wɜː(ɹ)k/. Corpus data places it at rank #116 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 19 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for work, with forms such as "owrk", "wokr", and "workk". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wow", "wot", "wry", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom Proto-Germanic *werką Proto-West Germanic *werk Old English weorc Middle English werk English work From Middle English work, werk, from Old English weorc, from Pr… The correct English form is work, spelled W-O-R-K.
Definition
- 1Employment.
- 2Employment.
- 3Employment.
- 4Employment.
- 5Effort.
- 6Effort.
- 7Effort.
- 8Effort.
- 9Effort.
- 10Effort.
- 11Effort.
- 12Product; the result of effort.
- 13Product; the result of effort.
- 14Product; the result of effort.
- 15Product; the result of effort.
- 16The staging of events to appear as real.
- 17Ore before it is dressed.
- 18The equipment needed to inject a drug (syringes, needles, swabs etc.)
- 19The confident attitude of a drag queen.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom Proto-Germanic *werką Proto-West Germanic *werk Old English weorc Middle English werk English work From Middle English work, werk, from Old English weorc, from Proto-West Germanic *werk, from Proto-Germanic *werką (“work”), from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom (“work”), from Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to make”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wark (“work”), North Frisian werk (“work”), Saterland Frisian Wierk (“work”), West Frisian wurk (“work”), Dutch werk (“work”), German Werk (“work”), German Low German Wark (“work”), Luxembourgish Wierk (“work”), Danish værk (“work”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish verk (“work”); also Breton ober (“to do, make”), Cornish gul, gwul (“to do, make”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic fearg (“anger”), Manx ferg (“anger”), Pictish ᚒᚏᚏᚐᚉᚈ (urract, “he made”), Welsh gwneud, neud (“to do, make”), Greek έργο (érgo, “work”), Albanian argëtim (“entertainment; fun, pleasure”), argëtoj (“to amuse, entertain”), Lithuanian váržas (“fish snaring net”), Macedonian врша (vrša, “fish-trap”), Polish wiersza (“fish-trap”), Russian and Ukrainian ве́рша (vérša, “fish-trap”), Serbo-Croatian вр̑ша, vȓša (“fish-trap”), Slovak and Slovene vrša (“fish-trap”), Aghwan 𐔱𐕒𐕙𐔵 (borz, “labour, work”), Armenian գործ (gorc, “work”), Northern Kurdish werz (“bed, field, patch; season”), Avestan 𐬬𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰 (vər^əz, “to do, work”), Persian ورز (varz, “art, craft, trade”), ورزه (varze, “art, profession, trade”), ورزیدن (varzidan, “to exercise; to train; to work”), Tocharian B warkṣäl (“energy, power, strength”). English cognates include bulwark, boulevard, energy, erg, georgic, liturgy, metallurgy, organ, surgeon, wright. Doublet of erg and ergon.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: owrk,wokr,workk,worrk,wrok,wwork
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of work - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “work”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-O-R-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /wɜː(ɹ)k/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “wow” - see the side-by-side comparison. work vs wow
- 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.