Which to use
“children” and “childrens” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #318
- “children” frequency rank
- #27,399
- “childrens” frequency rank
- 27717
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | children | childrens |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of child | plural of child |
Letter map: children vs childrens
Shared letters muted; letters that set children and childrens apart highlighted. Shared run: 8. children runs 8 letters (CCVCCCVC) against childrens's 9 (CCVCCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Corpus notes: children and childrens
children and childrens are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “children” sits inside “childrens”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
children is recorded at frequency rank #318, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃɪldɹən/. childrens is at rank #27,399, tagged as anoun.
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 27717, this pair ranks #376,658 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of children vs childrens
Shared letters: cdehilnr. Private to "children": -. Private to "childrens": s.
"children" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC · "childrens" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "children" and "childrens" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "children" or "childrens" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "children" and "childrens". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "children" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "childrens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #376,658 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "children" and "childrens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "childless vs childrens". 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 #376,658 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.