bandvsbondsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,262
“band” frequency rank
#4,507
“bonds” frequency rank
5769
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature band bonds
Definition A strip of material used for strengthening or coupling. plural of bond

Where the eye mixes band and bonds

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

4 ch
band
5 ch
bonds

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. band (/bænd/) and bonds (/bɑndz/) 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 5769, 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/. bonds is at rank #4,507, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bɑndz/.

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 5769, this pair ranks #514,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of band vs bonds

Shared letters: bdn. Private to "band": a. Private to "bonds": os.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bandabnd · badn · bandd · bannd · bband · bnad
  • bondsbbonds · bnods · bodns · bondds · bondss · bonnds · bonsd · obnds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "band" and "bonds" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/bænd/ versus /bɑndz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "band" or "bonds"?
"band" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,262 in our English list, against #4,507 for "bonds". 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