chequevschequesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“cheque” and “cheques” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,124
“cheque” frequency rank
#25,319
“cheques” frequency rank
40443
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cheque cheques
Definition A written order directing a bank to pay money to a person or entity. plural of cheque

Where the eye mixes cheque and cheques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cheque
7 ch
cheques

Look-alike desk: cheque vs cheques

A purely visual mix-up. cheque (/t͡ʃɛk/) and cheques (/t͡ʃɛks/) 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) - “cheque” sits inside “cheques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40443, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cheque is recorded at frequency rank #15,124, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɛk/. cheques is at rank #25,319, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɛks/.

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 40443, this pair ranks #267,564 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cheque vs cheques

Shared letters: cehqu. Private to "cheque": -. Private to "cheques": s.

"cheque" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "cheques" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chequeccheque · cehque · cheqeu · cheqque · cheuqe · chheque · chqeue · hceque
  • chequesccheques · cehques · cheqeus · cheqques · chequess · chequse · cheuqes · chheques

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cheque" and "cheques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃɛk/ versus /t͡ʃɛks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "cheque" or "cheques" show up more?
"cheque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,124 in our English list, against #25,319 for "cheques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cheque" and "cheques" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cheque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cheques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #267,564 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cheque" and "cheques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cheque vs cinque". 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 #267,564 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list