welles vs wells

Side by side

welles or wells?

What is the difference between welles and wells?

welles means "United States actor and filmmaker (1915-1985)". wells means "prolific English writer best known for his science-fiction novels; he also wrote on contemporary social problems and wrote popular accounts of history and science (1866-1946)". They are pronounced identically — /ˈwɛlz/ — so only the spelling and the meaning separate them.

Which is more common, welles or wells?

wells is the more common of the two — banded "Common" against "Familiar" for welles. Commonness is measured against a large corpus of everyday English, not judged.

Are welles and wells pronounced the same?

Yes. Both are /ˈwɛlz/, said welz. Words that sound alike and are spelled differently are homophones, and they are the commonest source of written mix-ups in English.

Can welles and wells be used in the same place in a sentence?

Both work as nouns, so they are grammatically interchangeable. That is exactly what makes the meaning difference worth checking.

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