TrickvstripsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Trick is a noun, trips is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Trick” is a noun and “trips” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,434
“Trick” frequency rank
#34,406
“trips” frequency rank
39840
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Trick trips
Definition ein Kunststück, Streich, ein Kunstgriff, dessen Funktionsweise für Nichteingeweihte nicht offensichtlich ist; eine Überraschung, Staunen oder Entsetzen hervorrufende, unerwartete, schwer vorhersagbare oder berechenbare Handlung 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs trip

Letter map: Trick vs trips

Shared letters muted; letters that set Trick and trips apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Trick
5 ch
trips

Part-of-speech tell for Trick / trips

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Trick is anoun and tripsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39840, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Trick is recorded at frequency rank #5,434, classified as anoun, pronounced [tʁɪk]. trips is at rank #34,406, 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 39840, this pair ranks #1,525,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Trick vs trips

Shared letters: irt. Private to "Trick": ck. Private to "trips": ps.

"Trick" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "trips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Trickrtick · tirck · trcik · tricck · trickk · trikc · trrick · ttrick
  • tripsrtips · tirps · tripps · tripss · trisp · trpis · trrips · ttrips

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Trick" for "trips" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Trick" is a noun and "trips" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Trick" vs "trips" - which ranks higher?
"Trick" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,434 in our German list, against #34,406 for "trips". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Trick" vs "trips" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Trick" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "trips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,525,384 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Trick" and "trips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs trips". 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 #1,525,384 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