concedevsconcedesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,370
“concede” frequency rank
#33,184
“concedes” frequency rank
48554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature concede concedes
Definition To yield or suffer; to surrender; to grant third-person singular simple present indicative of concede

Where the eye mixes concede and concedes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. concede runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against concedes's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
concede
8 ch
concedes

Look-alike desk: concede vs concedes

A purely visual mix-up. concede (/kənˈsiːd/) and concedes (/kənˈsiːdz/) 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) - “concede” sits inside “concedes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

concede is recorded at frequency rank #15,370, classified as averb, pronounced /kənˈsiːd/. concedes is at rank #33,184, tagged as averb, pronounced /kənˈsiːdz/.

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 48554, this pair ranks #191,945 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of concede vs concedes

Shared letters: cdeno. Private to "concede": -. Private to "concedes": s.

"concede" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "concedes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • concede ← cconcede · cnocede · cocnede · conccede · concdee · conceed · conecde · conncede
  • concedes ← cconcedes · cnocedes · cocnedes · conccedes · concdees · conceddes · concedess · concedse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "concede" and "concedes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kənˈsiːd/ versus /kənˈsiːdz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "concede" vs "concedes" - which ranks higher?
"concede" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,370 in our English list, against #33,184 for "concedes". 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 "concede" and "concedes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "concede" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "concedes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,945 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "concede" and "concedes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "concede vs conde". 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 #191,945 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