wormvsworthTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,620
“worm” frequency rank
#13,200
“worth” frequency rank
59820
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature worm worth
Definition minhoca, verme valor

Where the eye mixes worm and worth

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
worm
5 ch
worth

Visual trap between worm and worth

A purely visual mix-up. worm (/wɝm/) and worth (/wɜrθ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

worm is recorded at frequency rank #46,620, classified as anoun, pronounced /wɝm/. worth is at rank #13,200, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɜrθ/.

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 59820, this pair ranks #7,990 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of worm vs worth

Shared letters: orw. Private to "worm": m. Private to "worth": ht.

"worm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "worth" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wormowrm · womr · wormm · worrm · wrom · wworm
  • worthowrth · worht · worrth · worthh · wortth · wotrh · wroth · wworth

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "worm" for "worth" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/wɝm/ versus /wɜrθ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "worm" or "worth"?
"worth" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,200 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "worm" and "worth" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "worm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "worth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,990 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "worm" and "worth" 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 #7,990 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