Which to use
“woods” and “works” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,511
- “woods” frequency rank
- #28,411
- “works” frequency rank
- 44922
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | woods | works |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bois. | Pluriel de work (« travail, œuvre »). |
Where the eye mixes woods and works
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. woods (CVVCC) and works (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: woods vs works
A purely visual mix-up. woods (\wʊdz\) and works (\ˈwɝks\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44922, 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\. works is at rank #28,411, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈwɝks\.
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 44922, this pair ranks #206,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of woods vs works
Shared letters: osw. Private to "woods": d. Private to "works": kr.
"woods" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "works" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "woods" for "works" ever safe?
Frequency check: "woods" vs "works" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "woods" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "works" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #206,790 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "woods" and "works" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weeks vs works". 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 #206,790 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.