Which to use
“access” and “accesses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #940
- “access” frequency rank
- #42,508
- “accesses” frequency rank
- 43448
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | access | accesses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A way or means of approaching or entering; an entrance; a passage. | plural of access |
Where the eye mixes access and accesses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between access and accesses
A purely visual mix-up. access (/ˈæksɛs/) and accesses (/ˈæksɛsɪz/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “access” sits inside “accesses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
access is recorded at frequency rank #940, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈæksɛs/. accesses is at rank #42,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈæksɛsɪz/.
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 43448, this pair ranks #239,894 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of access vs accesses
Shared letters: aces. Private to "access": -. Private to "accesses": -.
"access" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "accesses" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "access" and "accesses" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "access" or "accesses"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "access" and "accesses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "access" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "accesses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #239,894 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "access" and "accesses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accesses vs assesses". 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 #239,894 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.