appealsvsappearsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#4,914
“appeals” frequency rank
#1,518
“appears” frequency rank
6432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature appeals appears
Definition plural of appeal third-person singular simple present indicative of appear

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set appeals and appears apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
appeals
7 ch
appears

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: appeals is /əˈpilz/ while appears is /əˈpɪəz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “appeals” becomes r in “appears”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

appeals is recorded at frequency rank #4,914, classified as anoun, pronounced /əˈpilz/. appears is at rank #1,518, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈpɪəz/.

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 6432, this pair ranks #511,448 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of appeals vs appears

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "appeals": l. Private to "appears": r.

"appeals" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC  ·  "appears" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • appealsapeals · apepals · appaels · appealls · appealss · appeasl · appelas · papeals
  • appearsapears · apepars · appaers · appearrs · appearss · appeasr · apperas · papears

Frequency comparison

appeals#4,914
appears#1,518

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "appeals" and "appears" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "appeals" is a noun and "appears" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "appeals" or "appears"?
"appears" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,518 in our English list, against #4,914 for "appeals". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering appeals vs appears

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “appeals”; for a verb, it's “appears”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “appeals” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list