aimsvsarmyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“aims” and “army” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,004
“aims” frequency rank
#921
“army” frequency rank
5925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aims army
Definition plural of aim A large, highly organized military force, concerned mainly with ground (rather than air or naval) operations.

Where the eye mixes aims and army

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
aims
4 ch
army

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. aims (/eɪmz/) and army (/ˈɑː.mi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aims is recorded at frequency rank #5,004, classified as anoun, pronounced /eɪmz/. army is at rank #921, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɑː.mi/.

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 5925, this pair ranks #513,477 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aims vs army

Shared letters: am. Private to "aims": is. Private to "army": ry.

"aims" · 4 letters · shape VVCC  ·  "army" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aimsaimms · aimss · aism · iams
  • armyamry · armmy · armyy · arrmy · arym · ramy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aims" and "army" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/eɪmz/ versus /ˈɑː.mi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aims" or "army"?
"army" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #921 in our English list, against #5,004 for "aims". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list