waivswokTell them apart

Which to use

“wai” and “wok” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#31,782
“wai” frequency rank
#41,603
“wok” frequency rank
73385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature wai wok
Definition Dent. Ustensile de cuisson de forme hémisphérique, comparable à, mais plus profond qu'une grande poêle.

Where the eye mixes wai and wok

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. wai (CVV) and wok (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
wai
3 ch
wok

Look-alike desk: wai vs wok

A purely visual mix-up. wai (\wai\) and wok (\wɔk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73385, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

wai is recorded at frequency rank #31,782, classified as anoun, pronounced \wai\. wok is at rank #41,603, tagged as anoun, pronounced \wɔk\.

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 73385, this pair ranks #40,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of wai vs wok

Shared letters: w. Private to "wai": ai. Private to "wok": ko.

"wai" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "wok" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "wai" and "wok" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\wai\ versus \wɔk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "wai" vs "wok" - which ranks higher?
"wai" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,782 in our French list, against #41,603 for "wok". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "wai" and "wok" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "wai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "wok" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "wai" and "wok" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wink vs wok". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #40,648 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list