Which to use
“Amish” is a noun and “amiss” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,284
- “Amish” frequency rank
- #31,430
- “amiss” frequency rank
- 51714
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Amish | amiss |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A strict Anabaptist sect living mainly in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. | Wrong; faulty; out of order; improper or otherwise incorrect. |
Where the eye mixes Amish and amiss
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Amish and amiss follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses Amish with amiss
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Amish is /ˈɑː.mɪʃ/ while amiss is /əˈmɪs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - h in “Amish” becomes s in “amiss”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51714, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Amish is recorded at frequency rank #20,284, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɑː.mɪʃ/. amiss is at rank #31,430, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈmɪs/.
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 51714, this pair ranks #163,146 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Amish vs amiss
Shared letters: aims. Private to "Amish": h. Private to "amiss": -.
"Amish" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "amiss" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Amish" for "amiss" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Amish" or "amiss"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Amish" and "amiss" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Amish" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "amiss" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #163,146 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Amish" and "amiss" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amiss vs amuses". 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 #163,146 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.