withvswriteTell them apart

Quick tell: with is a preposition, write is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“with” is a preposition and “write” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,175
“with” frequency rank
#47,107
“write” frequency rank
50282
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature with write
Definition Avec, en compagnie de Composer, écrire.

Where the eye mixes with and write

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
with
5 ch
write

Why the eye confuses with with write

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: with is \wɪθ\ while write is \ɹaɪt\. 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 (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

with is recorded at frequency rank #3,175, classified as aprep, pronounced \wɪθ\. write is at rank #47,107, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɹaɪt\.

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 50282, this pair ranks #163,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of with vs write

Shared letters: itw. Private to "with": h. Private to "write": er.

"with" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "write" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • withiwth · wiht · withh · witth · wtih · wwith
  • writerwite · wirte · wriet · writte · wrrite · wrtie · wwrite

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "with" for "write" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "with" is a preposition and "write" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "with" or "write"?
"with" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,175 in our French list, against #47,107 for "write". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "with" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "write" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #163,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "with" and "write" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waste vs write". 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 #163,887 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