Which to use
“death” and “deaths” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #385
- “death” frequency rank
- #2,827
- “deaths” frequency rank
- 3212
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | death | deaths |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The cessation of life and all associated processes; the end of an organism's existence as an entity independent from its environment and its return to an inert, nonliving state. | plural of death |
Where the eye mixes death and deaths
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. death (/dɛθ/) and deaths (/dɛθs/) 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) - “death” sits inside “deaths”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3212, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
death is recorded at frequency rank #385, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɛθ/. deaths is at rank #2,827, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɛθs/.
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 3212, this pair ranks #522,786 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of death vs deaths
Shared letters: adeht. Private to "death": -. Private to "deaths": s.
"death" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "deaths" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC