Which to use
“bottom” and “bottoms” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,521
- “bottom” frequency rank
- #14,281
- “bottoms” frequency rank
- 15802
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bottom | bottoms |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The lowest part of anything. | plural of bottom |
Where the eye mixes bottom and bottoms
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between bottom and bottoms
A purely visual mix-up. bottom (/ˈbɒ.təm/) and bottoms (/ˈbɒ.təmz/) 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) - “bottom” sits inside “bottoms”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bottom is recorded at frequency rank #1,521, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɒ.təm/. bottoms is at rank #14,281, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɒ.təmz/.
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 15802, this pair ranks #461,698 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bottom vs bottoms
Shared letters: bmot. Private to "bottom": -. Private to "bottoms": s.
"bottom" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "bottoms" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bottom" and "bottoms" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "bottom" or "bottoms" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bottom" and "bottoms" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bottom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bottoms" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #461,698 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bottom" and "bottoms" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bottomed vs bottoms". 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 #461,698 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.