dimesvsdiversTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,512
“dimes” frequency rank
#12,407
“divers” frequency rank
43919
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dimes divers
Definition plural of dime plural of diver

Where the eye mixes dimes and divers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dimes runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against divers's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dimes
6 ch
divers

Look-alike desk: dimes vs divers

A purely visual mix-up. dimes (/daɪmz/) and divers (/ˈdaɪvə(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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43919, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dimes is recorded at frequency rank #31,512, classified as anoun, pronounced /daɪmz/. divers is at rank #12,407, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdaɪvə(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 43919, this pair ranks #235,397 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dimes vs divers

Shared letters: deis. Private to "dimes": m. Private to "divers": rv.

"dimes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "divers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dimes ← ddimes · diems · dimess · dimmes · dimse · dmies · idmes
  • divers ← ddivers · dievrs · diverrs · diverss · divesr · divres · divvers · dviers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dimes" for "divers" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/daɪmz/ versus /ˈdaɪvə(ɹ)z/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dimes" vs "divers" - which ranks higher?
"divers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,407 in our English list, against #31,512 for "dimes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dimes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "divers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #235,397 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dimes" and "divers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dimer vs dimes". 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 #235,397 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