Which to use
“wells” and “willis” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,825
- “wells” frequency rank
- #23,417
- “willis” frequency rank
- 38242
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wells | willis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de well. | Jeunes filles condamnées, d’après une légende de Bohême, à sortir, après leur mort, du tombeau et à danser toute la nuit. |
Where the eye mixes wells and willis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. wells runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against willis's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: wells vs willis
A purely visual mix-up. wells (\’wɛlz\) and willis (\wil.lis\) 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 38242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wells is recorded at frequency rank #14,825, classified as anoun, pronounced \’wɛlz\. willis is at rank #23,417, tagged as anoun, pronounced \wil.lis\.
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 38242, this pair ranks #256,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wells vs willis
Shared letters: lsw. Private to "wells": e. Private to "willis": i.
"wells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "willis" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wells" and "willis" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "wells" vs "willis" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "wells" and "willis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wells" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "willis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #256,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wells" and "willis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weeks vs wells". 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 #256,674 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.