concludevsconcludesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,264
“conclude” frequency rank
#10,182
“concludes” frequency rank
18446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conclude concludes
Definition To end; to come to an end. third-person singular simple present indicative of conclude

Where the eye mixes conclude and concludes

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

8 ch
conclude
9 ch
concludes

Visual trap between conclude and concludes

A purely visual mix-up. conclude (/kənˈkluːd/) and concludes (/kənˈkluːdz/) 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) - “conclude” sits inside “concludes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conclude is recorded at frequency rank #8,264, classified as averb, pronounced /kənˈkluːd/. concludes is at rank #10,182, tagged as averb, pronounced /kənˈkluːdz/.

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 18446, this pair ranks #444,856 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of conclude vs concludes

Shared letters: cdelnou. Private to "conclude": -. Private to "concludes": s.

"conclude" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV  ·  "concludes" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • concludecconclude · cnoclude · cocnlude · concclude · concldue · concllude · conclued · conculde
  • concludescconcludes · cnocludes · cocnludes · conccludes · concldues · conclludes · concluddes · concludess

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "conclude" for "concludes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kənˈkluːd/ versus /kənˈkluːdz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "conclude" vs "concludes" - which ranks higher?
"conclude" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,264 in our English list, against #10,182 for "concludes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "conclude" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "concludes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #444,856 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conclude" and "concludes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conclude vs Concorde". 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 #444,856 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