Which to use
“wait” is a noun and “went” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,594
- “wait” frequency rank
- #39,927
- “went” frequency rank
- 59521
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wait | went |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | espera | passado simples do verbo go: |
Where the eye mixes wait and went
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between wait and went
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: wait is /weɪt/ while went is /ˈwεnt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wait is recorded at frequency rank #19,594, classified as anoun, pronounced /weɪt/. went is at rank #39,927, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈwεnt/.
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 59521, this pair ranks #8,139 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wait vs went
Shared letters: tw. Private to "wait": ai. Private to "went": en.
"wait" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "went" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "wait" and "went" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "wait" or "went" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "wait" and "went" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "wait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "went" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,139 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wait" and "went" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "watt vs went". 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 #8,139 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.