Which to use
“defect” and “defence” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,531
- “defect” frequency rank
- #2,940
- “defence” frequency rank
- 14471
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | defect | defence |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fault or malfunction. | The action of defending, of protecting from attack, danger or injury. |
Where the eye mixes defect and defence
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between defect and defence
A purely visual mix-up. defect (/ˈdiːfɛkt/) and defence (/dɪˈfɛns/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
defect is recorded at frequency rank #11,531, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdiːfɛkt/. defence is at rank #2,940, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈfɛns/.
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 14471, this pair ranks #469,847 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of defect vs defence
Shared letters: cdef. Private to "defect": t. Private to "defence": n.
"defect" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "defence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "defect" and "defence" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "defect" or "defence" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "defect" and "defence" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "defect" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "defence" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #469,847 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "defect" and "defence" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "defect vs defector". 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 #469,847 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.