Which to use
“business” and “businesses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #246
- “business” frequency rank
- #2,192
- “businesses” frequency rank
- 2438
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | business | businesses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A specific commercial enterprise or establishment. | plural of business |
Where the eye mixes business and businesses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. business (/ˈbɪz.nɪs/) and businesses (/ˈbɪz.nɪ.sɪz/) 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) - “business” sits inside “businesses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2438, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
business is recorded at frequency rank #246, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɪz.nɪs/. businesses is at rank #2,192, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɪz.nɪ.sɪz/.
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 2438, this pair ranks #524,979 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of business vs businesses
Shared letters: beinsu. Private to "business": -. Private to "businesses": -.
"business" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "businesses" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- business ← bbusiness · bsuiness · buisness · busienss · busines · businness · businses · busniess
- businesses ← bbusinesses · bsuinesses · buisnesses · busiensses · busineses · businesess · businessess · businessse