Which to use
“wink” is a verb and “won” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,685
- “wink” frequency rank
- #28,023
- “won” frequency rank
- 75708
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wink | won |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de winken. | Unité monétaire de Corée du Sud, divisée en 100 jeons. Son symbole est ₩ (Unicode U+20A9). Son code ISO 4217 est KRW. |
Where the eye mixes wink and won
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses wink with won
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wink is \vɪŋk\ while won is \wɔn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wink is recorded at frequency rank #47,685, classified as averb, pronounced \vɪŋk\. won is at rank #28,023, tagged as anoun, pronounced \wɔn\.
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 75708, this pair ranks #33,242 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wink vs won
Shared letters: nw. Private to "wink": ik. Private to "won": o.
"wink" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "won" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- wink ← iwnk · wikn · winkk · winnk · wnik · wwink
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wink" for "won" ever safe?
Which is more common, "wink" or "won"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wink" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "won" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,242 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wink" and "won" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went 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 #33,242 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.