Which to use
“damage” is a noun and “damages” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,329
- “damage” frequency rank
- #5,780
- “damages” frequency rank
- 7109
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | damage | damages |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Injury or harm; the condition or measure of something not being intact. | third-person singular simple present indicative of damage |
Where the eye mixes damage and damages
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. damage runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against damages's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: damage vs damages
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: damage is /ˈdæmɪd͡ʒ/ while damages is /ˈdæmɪd͡ʒɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “damage” sits inside “damages”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
damage is recorded at frequency rank #1,329, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdæmɪd͡ʒ/. damages is at rank #5,780, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈdæmɪd͡ʒɪz/.
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 7109, this pair ranks #508,532 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of damage vs damages
Shared letters: adegm. Private to "damage": -. Private to "damages": s.
"damage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "damages" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "damage" for "damages" ever safe?
Frequency check: "damage" vs "damages" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "damage" and "damages" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "damage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "damages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #508,532 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "damage" and "damages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damages vs dames". 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 #508,532 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.