Which to use
“card” is a noun and “cards” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,840
- “card” frequency rank
- #21,563
- “cards” frequency rank
- 33403
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | card | cards |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Karte, auch Card | Plural von card |
Where the eye mixes card and cards
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between card and cards
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: card is [kɑːd] while cards is [kɑːds]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “card” sits inside “cards”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
card is recorded at frequency rank #11,840, classified as anoun, pronounced [kɑːd]. cards is at rank #21,563, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [kɑːds].
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 33403, this pair ranks #1,686,705 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of card vs cards
Shared letters: acdr. Private to "card": -. Private to "cards": s.
"card" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "cards" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "card" and "cards" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "card" or "cards"?
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 "card" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cards" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,686,705 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "card" and "cards" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cards vs carr". 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 #1,686,705 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.