digitvsdigitsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,036
“digit” frequency rank
#11,872
“digits” frequency rank
21908
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature digit digits
Definition A position in a sequence of numerals representing a place value in a positional number system. Synonym of telephone number; especially, the one that belongs to a potential dating partner.

Letter map: digit vs digits

Shared letters muted; letters that set digit and digits apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

5 ch
digit
6 ch
digits

Corpus notes: digit and digits

digit and digits are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “digit” sits inside “digits”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

digit is recorded at frequency rank #10,036, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɪd͡ʒɪt/. digits is at rank #11,872, tagged as anoun.

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 21908, this pair ranks #420,479 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of digit vs digits

Shared letters: dgit. Private to "digit": -. Private to "digits": s.

"digit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "digits" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • digitddigit · dgiit · diggit · digitt · digti · diigt · idgit
  • digitsddigits · dgiits · diggits · digist · digitss · digitts · digtis · diigts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "digit" and "digits" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “digit” sits inside “digits”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "digit" or "digits"?
"digit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,036 in our English list, against #11,872 for "digits". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "digit" and "digits".

  • Full dictionary entry for "digit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "digits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,479 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "digit" and "digits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "digi vs digits". 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 #420,479 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