Which to use
“drug” is a verb and “drugs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,692
- “drug” frequency rank
- #37,460
- “drugs” frequency rank
- 76152
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drug | drugs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs drag | Plural des Substantivs drug |
Letter map: drug vs drugs
Shared letters muted; letters that set drug and drugs apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. drug runs 4 letters (CCVC) against drugs's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - drug and drugs
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: drug is averb and drugsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “drug” sits inside “drugs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drug is recorded at frequency rank #38,692, classified as averb, pronounced [dɹʌɡ]. drugs is at rank #37,460, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].
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 76152, this pair ranks #290,529 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of drug vs drugs
Shared letters: dgru. Private to "drug": -. Private to "drugs": s.
"drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "drugs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drug" for "drugs" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "drug" or "drugs" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "drug" vs "drugs" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "drug" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drugs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #290,529 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drug" and "drugs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drugs vs puzzles". 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 #290,529 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.