AgnesvsagreesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Agnes is a name, agrees is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Agnes” is a name and “agrees” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,456
“Agnes” frequency rank
#6,205
“agrees” frequency rank
19661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Agnes agrees
Definition A female given name from Ancient Greek. third-person singular simple present indicative of agree

Where the eye mixes Agnes and agrees

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Agnes
6 ch
agrees

Look-alike desk: Agnes vs agrees

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Agnes is /ˈæɡ.nɪs/ while agrees is /əˈɡɹiːz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Agnes is recorded at frequency rank #13,456, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈæɡ.nɪs/. agrees is at rank #6,205, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈɡɹiːz/.

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 19661, this pair ranks #436,610 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Agnes vs agrees

Shared letters: aegs. Private to "Agnes": n. Private to "agrees": r.

"Agnes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "agrees" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Agnesagens · aggnes · agness · agnnes · agnse · anges · ganes
  • agreesageres · aggrees · agreess · agres · agrese · agrrees · argees · garees

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Agnes" and "agrees" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Agnes" is a name and "agrees" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Agnes" vs "agrees" - which ranks higher?
"agrees" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,205 in our English list, against #13,456 for "Agnes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Agnes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agrees" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,610 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Agnes" and "agrees" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Aeneas vs Agnes". 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 #436,610 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list