childsvscoilsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,202
“childs” frequency rank
#18,044
“coils” frequency rank
41246
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature childs coils
Definition plural of child plural of coil

Letter map: childs vs coils

Shared letters muted; letters that set childs and coils apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. childs runs 6 letters (CCVCCC) against coils's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
childs
5 ch
coils

Spelling & dictionary notes on childs vs coils

childs and coils 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

childs is recorded at frequency rank #23,202, classified as anoun. coils is at rank #18,044, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔɪlz/.

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 41246, this pair ranks #260,237 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of childs vs coils

Shared letters: cils. Private to "childs": dh. Private to "coils": o.

"childs" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "coils" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • childs ← cchilds · chhilds · chidls · childds · childss · chillds · chilsd · chlids
  • coils ← ccoils · ciols · coills · coilss · coisl · colis · ocils

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "childs" and "coils" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "childs" vs "coils" - which ranks higher?
"coils" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,044 in our English list, against #23,202 for "childs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "childs" and "coils". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "childs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,237 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "childs" and "coils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "childs vs chives". 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 #260,237 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