workvswormWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“work” and “worm” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,253
“work” frequency rank
#46,620
“worm” frequency rank
52873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature work worm
Definition trabalho minhoca, verme

Letter map: work vs worm

Shared letters muted; letters that set work and worm apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
work
4 ch
worm

Corpus notes: work and worm

work and worm are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - k in “work” becomes m in “worm”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

work is recorded at frequency rank #6,253, classified as anoun. worm is at rank #46,620, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɝm/.

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 52873, this pair ranks #12,429 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of work vs worm

Shared letters: orw. Private to "work": k. Private to "worm": m.

"work" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "worm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • workowrk · wokr · workk · worrk · wrok · wwork
  • wormowrm · womr · wormm · worrm · wrom · wworm

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "work" for "worm" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - k in “work” becomes m in “worm”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "work" or "worm"?
"work" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,253 in our Portuguese list, against #46,620 for "worm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "work" vs "worm" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "work" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "worm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,429 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "work" and "worm" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "wir vs worm". 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 #12,429 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list