attendeevsattendeesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,566
“attendee” frequency rank
#13,857
“attendees” frequency rank
54423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature attendee attendees
Definition A person who is in attendance or in the audience of an event. plural of attendee

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set attendee and attendees apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
attendee
9 ch
attendees

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

attendee and attendees are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “attendee” sits inside “attendees”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

attendee is recorded at frequency rank #40,566, classified as anoun. attendees is at rank #13,857, tagged as anoun, pronounced /əˌtɛnˈdiːz/.

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 54423, this pair ranks #141,210 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of attendee vs attendees

Shared letters: adent. Private to "attendee": -. Private to "attendees": s.

"attendee" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "attendees" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • attendeeatendee · atetndee · attednee · attenddee · attende · attenede · attenndee · attnedee
  • attendeesatendees · atetndees · attednees · attenddees · attendeess · attendes · attendese · attenedes

Frequency comparison

attendee#40,566
attendees#13,857

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "attendee" and "attendees" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “attendee” sits inside “attendees”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "attendee" or "attendees"?
"attendees" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,857 in our English list, against #40,566 for "attendee". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering attendee vs attendees

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “attendee” 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