Which to use
“wo” is an intj and “wood” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,171
- “wo” frequency rank
- #17,040
- “wood” frequency rank
- 42211
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wo | wood |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Interjection indiquant de la désapprobation. | Bois, substance dure et fibreuse des arbres. |
Where the eye mixes wo and wood
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. wo runs 2 letters (CV) against wood's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses wo with wood
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wo is \wo\ while wood is \wʊd\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “wo” sits inside “wood”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wo is recorded at frequency rank #25,171, classified as anintj, pronounced \wo\. wood is at rank #17,040, tagged as anoun, pronounced \wʊd\.
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 42211, this pair ranks #227,363 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of wo vs wood
Shared letters: ow. Private to "wo": -. Private to "wood": d.
"wo" · 2 letters · shape CV · "wood" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- wood ← owod · wod · wodo · woodd · wwood
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wo" for "wood" ever safe?
Frequency check: "wo" vs "wood" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "wo" and "wood" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "wood" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #227,363 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wo" and "wood" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "waw vs wo". 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 #227,363 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.