Which to use
“woods” is a noun and “woody” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,511
- “woods” frequency rank
- #15,285
- “woody” frequency rank
- 31796
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | woods | woody |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bois. | Boisé, vieilli dans un fût en bois. |
Letter map: woods vs woody
Shared letters muted; letters that set woods and woody apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. woods (CVVCC) and woody (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Role in the sentence - woods and woody
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: woods is anoun and woodyanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - s in “woods” becomes y in “woody”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
woods is recorded at frequency rank #16,511, classified as anoun, pronounced \wʊdz\. woody is at rank #15,285, tagged as anadj.
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 31796, this pair ranks #301,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of woods vs woody
Shared letters: dow. Private to "woods": s. Private to "woody": y.
"woods" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "woody" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "woods" for "woody" ever safe?
Frequency check: "woods" vs "woody" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "woods" vs "woody" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "woods" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "woody" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #301,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "woods" and "woody" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "woods vs worlds". 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 #301,495 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.