Which to use
“derail” and “detail” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,059
- “derail” frequency rank
- #2,621
- “detail” frequency rank
- 28680
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | derail | detail |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonym of derailer: A device placed on railway tracks in order to cause a train to derail. | A part small enough to escape casual notice. |
Where the eye mixes derail and detail
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. derail and detail follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: derail vs detail
A purely visual mix-up. derail (/ˌdəˈɹeɪ.əl/) and detail (/ˈdiː.teɪl/) 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 a single letter - r in “derail” becomes t in “detail”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
derail is recorded at frequency rank #26,059, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˌdəˈɹeɪ.əl/. detail is at rank #2,621, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdiː.teɪl/.
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 28680, this pair ranks #369,165 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of derail vs detail
Shared letters: adeil. Private to "derail": r. Private to "detail": t.
"derail" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "detail" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "derail" for "detail" ever safe?
Frequency check: "derail" vs "detail" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "derail" and "detail" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "derail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "detail" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #369,165 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "derail" and "detail" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DePaul vs derail". 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 #369,165 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.