Which to use
“wear” is a verb and “weir” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,332
- “wear” frequency rank
- #36,659
- “weir” frequency rank
- 71991
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wear | weir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Porter (un vêtement). | Barrage ajustable, servant d’écluse ou de déversoir pour les mesures de débit. |
Where the eye mixes wear and weir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. wear and weir follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses wear with weir
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wear is \wɛə\ while weir is \wɪ.ɚ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “wear” becomes i in “weir”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wear is recorded at frequency rank #35,332, classified as averb, pronounced \wɛə\. weir is at rank #36,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced \wɪ.ɚ\.
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 71991, this pair ranks #45,583 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wear vs weir
Shared letters: erw. Private to "wear": a. Private to "weir": i.
"wear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "weir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wear" and "weir" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "wear" vs "weir" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "wear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "weir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,583 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wear" and "weir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wear vs wrap". 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 #45,583 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.