Which to use
“wick” and “witch” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,105
- “wick” frequency rank
- #44,267
- “witch” frequency rank
- 82372
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wick | witch |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mèche (d’une bougie). | Sorcière. |
Where the eye mixes wick and witch
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses wick with witch
A purely visual mix-up. wick (\wɪk\) and witch (\ˈwɪt͡ʃ\) 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 82372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wick is recorded at frequency rank #38,105, classified as anoun, pronounced \wɪk\. witch is at rank #44,267, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈwɪt͡ʃ\.
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 82372, this pair ranks #16,872 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wick vs witch
Shared letters: ciw. Private to "wick": k. Private to "witch": ht.
"wick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "witch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "wick" and "witch" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "wick" or "witch"?
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 "wick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "witch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,872 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wick" and "witch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wick vs wink". 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 #16,872 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.