Which to use
“school” and “schools” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,303
- “school” frequency rank
- #44,897
- “schools” frequency rank
- 50200
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | school | schools |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Schule | Plural des Substantivs school |
Where the eye mixes school and schools
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: school vs schools
A purely visual mix-up. school ([skuːl]) and schools ([skuːls]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “school” sits inside “schools”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50200, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
school is recorded at frequency rank #5,303, classified as anoun, pronounced [skuːl]. schools is at rank #44,897, tagged as anoun, pronounced [skuːls].
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 50200, this pair ranks #1,182,777 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of school vs schools
Shared letters: chlos. Private to "school": -. Private to "schools": -.
"school" · 6 letters · shape CCCVVC · "schools" · 7 letters · shape CCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "school" and "schools" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "school" or "schools"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "school" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "schools" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,182,777 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "school" and "schools" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Scholle vs schools". 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 #1,182,777 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.