bandvsbanksWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,262
“band” frequency rank
#2,061
“banks” frequency rank
3323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature band banks
Definition A strip of material used for strengthening or coupling. plural of bank

Where the eye mixes band and banks

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
band
5 ch
banks

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. band (/bænd/) and banks (/ˈbæŋks/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

band is recorded at frequency rank #1,262, classified as anoun, pronounced /bænd/. banks is at rank #2,061, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbæŋks/.

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 3323, this pair ranks #522,445 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of band vs banks

Shared letters: abn. Private to "band": d. Private to "banks": ks.

"band" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "banks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bandabnd · badn · bandd · bannd · bband · bnad
  • banksabnks · bakns · bankks · bankss · bannks · bansk · bbanks · bnaks

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "band" and "banks" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/bænd/ versus /ˈbæŋks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "band" or "banks"?
"band" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,262 in our English list, against #2,061 for "banks". 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