Which to use
“defence” and “defense” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,940
- “defence” frequency rank
- #1,247
- “defense” frequency rank
- 4187
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | defence | defense |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The action of defending, of protecting from attack, danger or injury. | The action of defending or protecting from attack, danger, or injury. |
Same sound, different letters: defence vs defense
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
This is the hard kind. defence and defense are pronounced identically (/dɪˈfɛns/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - c in “defence” becomes s in “defense”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4187, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
defence is recorded at frequency rank #2,940, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈfɛns/. defense is at rank #1,247, 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 4187, this pair ranks #519,721 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of defence vs defense
Shared letters: defn. Private to "defence": c. Private to "defense": s.
"defence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "defense" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV