commissionervscommissionersTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,415
“commissioner” frequency rank
#10,016
“commissioners” frequency rank
13431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commissioner commissioners
Definition A member of a commission. plural of commissioner

Where the eye mixes commissioner and commissioners

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 12 letters in sequence.

12 ch
commissioner
13 ch
commissioners

Look-alike desk: commissioner vs commissioners

A purely visual mix-up. commissioner (/kəˈmɪʃənɚ/) and commissioners (/kəˈmɪʃənɚz/) 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) - “commissioner” sits inside “commissioners”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commissioner is recorded at frequency rank #3,415, classified as anoun, pronounced /kəˈmɪʃənɚ/. commissioners is at rank #10,016, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəˈmɪʃənɚz/.

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 13431, this pair ranks #475,852 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commissioner vs commissioners

Shared letters: ceimnors. Private to "commissioner": -. Private to "commissioners": -.

"commissioner" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVCVC  ·  "commissioners" · 13 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commissionerccommissioner · cmomissioner · comimssioner · comissioner · commisioner · commisisoner · commissinoer · commissioenr
  • commissionersccommissioners · cmomissioners · comimssioners · comissioners · commisioners · commisisoners · commissinoers · commissioenrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "commissioner" and "commissioners" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kəˈmɪʃənɚ/ versus /kəˈmɪʃənɚz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "commissioner" or "commissioners"?
"commissioner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,415 in our English list, against #10,016 for "commissioners". 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 "commissioner" and "commissioners" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commissioner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commissioners" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #475,852 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commissioner" and "commissioners" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commissioners vs commissions". 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 #475,852 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