workvsworryTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,739
“work” frequency rank
#48,152
“worry” frequency rank
62891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature work worry
Definition Trabajo. Preocupación.

Where the eye mixes work and worry

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
work
5 ch
worry

Why the eye confuses work with worry

A purely visual mix-up. work (/wɜːk/) and worry (/ˈwʌɹ.i/) 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 62891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

work is recorded at frequency rank #14,739, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɜːk/. worry is at rank #48,152, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈwʌɹ.i/.

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 62891, this pair ranks #50,531 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of work vs worry

Shared letters: orw. Private to "work": k. Private to "worry": y.

"work" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "worry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • workowrk · wokr · workk · worrk · wrok · wwork
  • worryowrry · worryy · wory · woryr · wrory · wworry

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "work" and "worry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/wɜːk/ versus /ˈwʌɹ.i/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "work" vs "worry" - which ranks higher?
"work" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,739 in our Spanish list, against #48,152 for "worry". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "work" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "worry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,531 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "work" and "worry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "works vs worry". 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 #50,531 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