bladevsblazesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,191
“blade” frequency rank
#37,827
“blazes” frequency rank
43018
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blade blazes
Definition The (typically sharp-edged) part of a knife, sword, razor, or other tool with which it cuts. plural of blaze

Where the eye mixes blade and blazes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
blade
6 ch
blazes

Look-alike desk: blade vs blazes

A purely visual mix-up. blade (/bleɪd/) and blazes (/ˈbleɪzɪz/) 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 43018, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blade is recorded at frequency rank #5,191, classified as anoun, pronounced /bleɪd/. blazes is at rank #37,827, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbleɪzɪz/.

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 43018, this pair ranks #243,979 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of blade vs blazes

Shared letters: abel. Private to "blade": d. Private to "blazes": sz.

"blade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "blazes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bladebalde · bblade · bladde · blaed · bldae · bllade · lbade
  • blazesbalzes · bblazes · blaezs · blazess · blazse · blazzes · bllazes · blzaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blade" for "blazes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bleɪd/ versus /ˈbleɪzɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "blade" vs "blazes" - which ranks higher?
"blade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,191 in our English list, against #37,827 for "blazes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blazes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #243,979 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blade" and "blazes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bladed vs blazes". 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 #243,979 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list