Which to use
“depth” and “depths” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,725
- “depth” frequency rank
- #9,873
- “depths” frequency rank
- 12598
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | depth | depths |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | the vertical distance below a surface; the degree to which something is deep | plural of depth |
Where the eye mixes depth and depths
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. depth runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against depths's 6 (CVCCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between depth and depths
A purely visual mix-up. depth (/dɛpθ/) and depths (/dɛpθs/) 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) - “depth” sits inside “depths”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12598, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
depth is recorded at frequency rank #2,725, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɛpθ/. depths is at rank #9,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɛpθs/.
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 12598, this pair ranks #480,634 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of depth vs depths
Shared letters: dehpt. Private to "depth": -. Private to "depths": s.
"depth" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "depths" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "depth" and "depths" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "depth" vs "depths" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "depth" and "depths" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "depth" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "depths" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #480,634 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "depth" and "depths" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dents vs depths". 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 #480,634 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.