Which to use
“breath” is a noun and “breathes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,880
- “breath” frequency rank
- #19,540
- “breathes” frequency rank
- 22420
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | breath | breathes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act or process of breathing. | third-person singular simple present indicative of breathe |
Where the eye mixes breath and breathes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. breath runs 6 letters (CCVVCC) against breathes's 8 (CCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: breath vs breathes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: breath is /bɹɛθ/ while breathes is /bɹiːðz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “breath” sits inside “breathes”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22420, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
breath is recorded at frequency rank #2,880, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɹɛθ/. breathes is at rank #19,540, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɹiːðz/.
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 22420, this pair ranks #416,716 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of breath vs breathes
Shared letters: abehrt. Private to "breath": -. Private to "breathes": s.
"breath" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "breathes" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "breath" and "breathes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "breath" or "breathes" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "breath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "breathes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,716 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "breath" and "breathes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "breathes vs breeches". 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 #416,716 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.