Which to use
“bends” is a noun and “bests” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,494
- “bends” frequency rank
- #47,490
- “bests” frequency rank
- 65984
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bends | bests |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of bend | A polite, formulaic end to a letter or email. |
Where the eye mixes bends and bests
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. bends and bests follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between bends and bests
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bends is /bɛndz/ while bests is /bɛsts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bends is recorded at frequency rank #18,494, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɛndz/. bests is at rank #47,490, tagged as anintj, pronounced /bɛsts/.
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 65984, this pair ranks #70,155 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bends vs bests
Shared letters: bes. Private to "bends": dn. Private to "bests": t.
"bends" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "bests" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bends" and "bests" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "bends" vs "bests" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "bends" and "bests" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bends" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bests" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,155 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bends" and "bests" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bestie vs bests". 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 #70,155 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.