weekvsweirWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,244
“week” frequency rank
#36,659
“weir” frequency rank
37903
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature week weir
Definition Week-end. Barrage ajustable, servant d’écluse ou de déversoir pour les mesures de débit.

Where the eye mixes week and weir

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

4 ch
week
4 ch
weir

Why the eye confuses week with weir

A purely visual mix-up. week (\wik\) and weir (\wɪ.ɚ\) 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 37903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

week is recorded at frequency rank #1,244, classified as anoun, pronounced \wik\. 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 37903, this pair ranks #259,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of week vs weir

Shared letters: ew. Private to "week": k. Private to "weir": ir.

"week" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "weir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • weekewek · weekk · wek · weke · wweek
  • weirewir · weirr · weri · wier · wweir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "week" for "weir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\wik\ versus \wɪ.ɚ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "week" or "weir"?
"week" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,244 in our French list, against #36,659 for "weir". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "week" 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 #259,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "week" and "weir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weir vs went". 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 #259,149 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