saintvssaintsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: saint is a adjective, saints is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“saint” is an adjective and “saints” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,718
“saint” frequency rank
#41,437
“saints” frequency rank
48155
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saint saints
Definition heilig 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs saint

Letter map: saint vs saints

Shared letters muted; letters that set saint and saints apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

5 ch
saint
6 ch
saints

Role in the sentence - saint and saints

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: saint is anadjective and saintsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “saint” sits inside “saints”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saint is recorded at frequency rank #6,718, classified as anadj, pronounced [sɛ̃]. saints is at rank #41,437, tagged as averb, 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 48155, this pair ranks #1,258,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of saint vs saints

Shared letters: ainst. Private to "saint": -. Private to "saints": -.

"saint" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "saints" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saintasint · sainnt · saintt · saitn · sanit · siant · ssaint
  • saintsasints · sainnts · sainst · saintss · saintts · saitns · sanits · siants

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "saint" and "saints" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "saint" is an adjective and "saints" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "saint" or "saints" show up more?
"saint" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,718 in our German list, against #41,437 for "saints". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "saint" and "saints". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "saints" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,258,833 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saint" and "saints" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs saints". 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 #1,258,833 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list