comradevscomradesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#13,888
“comrade” frequency rank
#12,390
“comrades” frequency rank
26278
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comrade comrades
Definition A mate, companion, or associate. plural of comrade

Where the eye mixes comrade and comrades

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
comrade
8 ch
comrades

Visual trap between comrade and comrades

A purely visual mix-up. comrade (/ˈkɒmɹeɪd/) and comrades (/ˈkɒmɹeɪdz/) 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) - “comrade” sits inside “comrades”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comrade is recorded at frequency rank #13,888, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒmɹeɪd/. comrades is at rank #12,390, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒmɹeɪdz/.

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 26278, this pair ranks #387,902 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comrade vs comrades

Shared letters: acdemor. Private to "comrade": -. Private to "comrades": s.

"comrade" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "comrades" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comradeccomrade · cmorade · comarde · commrade · comradde · comraed · comrdae · comrrade
  • comradesccomrades · cmorades · comardes · commrades · comraddes · comradess · comradse · comraeds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "comrade" and "comrades" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɒmɹeɪd/ versus /ˈkɒmɹeɪdz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "comrade" or "comrades"?
"comrades" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,390 in our English list, against #13,888 for "comrade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comrade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comrades" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #387,902 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comrade" and "comrades" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "charade vs comrade". 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 #387,902 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