Which to use
“bleed” and “bleeds” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,818
- “bleed” frequency rank
- #27,380
- “bleeds” frequency rank
- 38198
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bleed | bleeds |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To shed blood through an injured blood vessel. | third-person singular simple present indicative of bleed |
Where the eye mixes bleed and bleeds
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. bleed runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against bleeds's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: bleed vs bleeds
A purely visual mix-up. bleed (/ˈbliːd/) and bleeds (/ˈbliːdz/) 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 extra letter(s) - “bleed” sits inside “bleeds”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38198, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bleed is recorded at frequency rank #10,818, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbliːd/. bleeds is at rank #27,380, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbliːdz/.
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 38198, this pair ranks #288,026 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bleed vs bleeds
Shared letters: bdel. Private to "bleed": -. Private to "bleeds": s.
"bleed" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "bleeds" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bleed" and "bleeds" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "bleed" or "bleeds"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bleed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bleeds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #288,026 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bleed" and "bleeds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "beeps vs bleeds". 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 #288,026 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.