Which to use
“bless” and “blesses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,394
- “bless” frequency rank
- #46,341
- “blesses” frequency rank
- 51735
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bless | blesses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make something holy by religious rite, sanctify. | third-person singular simple present indicative of bless |
Where the eye mixes bless and blesses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between bless and blesses
A purely visual mix-up. bless (/blɛs/) and blesses (/ˈblɛsɪz/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “bless” sits inside “blesses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51735, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bless is recorded at frequency rank #5,394, classified as averb, pronounced /blɛs/. blesses is at rank #46,341, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈblɛsɪz/.
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 51735, this pair ranks #162,976 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bless vs blesses
Shared letters: bels. Private to "bless": -. Private to "blesses": -.
"bless" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "blesses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bless" for "blesses" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bless" or "blesses"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bless" and "blesses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bless" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "blesses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #162,976 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bless" and "blesses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blesses vs busses". 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 #162,976 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.