wonvsworkWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“won” and “work” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,847
“won” frequency rank
#14,739
“work” frequency rank
32586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature won work
Definition Unidad monetaria de Corea del Norte. Trabajo.

Where the eye mixes won and work

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
won
4 ch
work

Look-alike desk: won vs work

A purely visual mix-up. won ([ˈ(ɣ̞)w̝õn]) and work (/wɜːk/) 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 32586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

won is recorded at frequency rank #17,847, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈ(ɣ̞)w̝õn]. work is at rank #14,739, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɜːk/.

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 32586, this pair ranks #201,213 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of won vs work

Shared letters: ow. Private to "won": n. Private to "work": kr.

"won" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "work" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • workowrk · wokr · workk · worrk · wrok · wwork

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "won" and "work" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈ(ɣ̞)w̝õn] versus /wɜːk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "won" vs "work" - which ranks higher?
"work" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,739 in our Spanish list, against #17,847 for "won". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "won" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "work" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,213 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "won" and "work" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weón vs won". 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 #201,213 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list