developervsdevelopersConfusable pair

Which to use

“developer” and “developers” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,120
“developer” frequency rank
#4,938
“developers” frequency rank
10058
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature developer developers
Definition A person or entity engaged in the creation or improvement of certain classes of products. plural of developer

Where the eye mixes developer and developers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
developer
10 ch
developers

Visual trap between developer and developers

A purely visual mix-up. developer (/dɪˈvɛləpə(ɹ)/) and developers (/dɪˈvɛləpə(ɹ)z/) 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) - “developer” sits inside “developers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10058, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

developer is recorded at frequency rank #5,120, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈvɛləpə(ɹ)/. developers is at rank #4,938, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈvɛləpə(ɹ)z/.

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 10058, this pair ranks #494,247 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of developer vs developers

Shared letters: deloprv. Private to "developer": -. Private to "developers": s.

"developer" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "developers" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • developerddeveloper · deevloper · develloper · develoepr · developerr · developper · developre · develpoer
  • developersddevelopers · deevlopers · devellopers · develoeprs · developerrs · developerss · developesr · developpers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "developer" for "developers" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/dɪˈvɛləpə(ɹ)/ versus /dɪˈvɛləpə(ɹ)z/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "developer" vs "developers" - which ranks higher?
"developers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,938 in our English list, against #5,120 for "developer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "developer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "developers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #494,247 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "developer" and "developers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "develop vs developer". 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 #494,247 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list