commandersvscommandsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,516
“commanders” frequency rank
#7,544
“commands” frequency rank
18060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commanders commands
Definition plural of commander plural of command

Where the eye mixes commanders and commands

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
commanders
8 ch
commands

Why the eye confuses commanders with commands

A purely visual mix-up. commanders (/kəˈmændɚz/) and commands (/kəˈmændz/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commanders is recorded at frequency rank #10,516, classified as anoun, pronounced /kəˈmændɚz/. commands is at rank #7,544, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəˈmændz/.

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 18060, this pair ranks #447,375 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commanders vs commands

Shared letters: acdmnos. Private to "commanders": er. Private to "commands": -.

"commanders" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC  ·  "commands" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commandersccommanders · cmomanders · comamnders · comanders · commadners · commandders · commanderrs · commanderss
  • commandsccommands · cmomands · comamnds · comands · commadns · commandds · commandss · commannds

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "commanders" for "commands" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kəˈmændɚz/ versus /kəˈmændz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "commanders" vs "commands" - which ranks higher?
"commands" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,544 in our English list, against #10,516 for "commanders". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "commanders" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commands" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #447,375 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commanders" and "commands" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commands vs commend". 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 #447,375 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