worryvsworthWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,960
“worry” frequency rank
#13,200
“worth” frequency rank
52160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature worry worth
Definition preocupação valor

Where the eye mixes worry and worth

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

5 ch
worry
5 ch
worth

Visual trap between worry and worth

A purely visual mix-up. worry (/ˈwɜːri/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

worry is recorded at frequency rank #38,960, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈwɜːri/. 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 52160, this pair ranks #12,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of worry vs worth

Shared letters: orw. Private to "worry": y. Private to "worth": ht.

"worry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "worth" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • worryowrry · worryy · wory · woryr · wrory · wworry
  • worthowrth · worht · worrth · worthh · wortth · wotrh · wroth · wworth

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "worry" for "worth" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈwɜːri/ versus /wɜrθ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "worry" vs "worth" - which ranks higher?
"worth" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,200 in our Portuguese list, against #38,960 for "worry". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "worry" 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 #12,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "worry" and "worth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "worm vs worry". 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 #12,984 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