Which to use
“went” and “wink” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,529
- “went” frequency rank
- #47,685
- “wink” frequency rank
- 94214
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | went | wink |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prétérit de go. | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de winken. |
Where the eye mixes went and wink
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. went and wink follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses went with wink
A purely visual mix-up. went (\ˈwɛnt\) and wink (\vɪŋk\) 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 94214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
went is recorded at frequency rank #46,529, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈwɛnt\. wink is at rank #47,685, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɪŋk\.
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 94214, this pair ranks #1,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of went vs wink
Shared letters: nw. Private to "went": et. Private to "wink": ik.
"went" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "wink" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "went" for "wink" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "went" or "wink" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "went" and "wink" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "went" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wink" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,781 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "went" and "wink" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went vs wren". 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 #1,781 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.