Which to use
“diagnoses” and “diagnosis” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,183
- “diagnoses” frequency rank
- #5,121
- “diagnosis” frequency rank
- 26304
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | diagnoses | diagnosis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of diagnosis | The process of, or an instance of, identification of the nature and cause of a medical condition or illness. |
Where the eye mixes diagnoses and diagnosis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. diagnoses and diagnosis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between diagnoses and diagnosis
A purely visual mix-up. diagnoses (/daɪəɡˈnəʊsiz/) and diagnosis (/daɪəɡˈnəʊsɪs/) 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 - e in “diagnoses” becomes i in “diagnosis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
diagnoses is recorded at frequency rank #21,183, classified as anoun, pronounced /daɪəɡˈnəʊsiz/. diagnosis is at rank #5,121, tagged as anoun, pronounced /daɪəɡˈnəʊsɪs/.
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 26304, this pair ranks #387,692 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of diagnoses vs diagnosis
Shared letters: adginos. Private to "diagnoses": e. Private to "diagnosis": -.
"diagnoses" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVC · "diagnosis" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "diagnoses" for "diagnosis" ever safe?
Which is more common, "diagnoses" or "diagnosis"?
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 "diagnoses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "diagnosis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,692 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "diagnoses" and "diagnosis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diagnose vs diagnoses". 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 #387,692 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.