Which to use
“disease” and “diseases” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,331
- “disease” frequency rank
- #3,873
- “diseases” frequency rank
- 5204
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | disease | diseases |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An abnormal condition of a human, animal or plant that causes discomfort or dysfunction; distinct from injury insofar as the latter is usually instantaneously acquired. | plural of disease |
Where the eye mixes disease and diseases
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. disease runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against diseases's 8 (CVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between disease and diseases
A purely visual mix-up. disease (/dɪˈziːz/) and diseases (/dɪˈziː.zɪz/) 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) - “disease” sits inside “diseases”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
disease is recorded at frequency rank #1,331, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈziːz/. diseases is at rank #3,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈziː.zɪz/.
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 5204, this pair ranks #516,203 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of disease vs diseases
Shared letters: adeis. Private to "disease": -. Private to "diseases": -.
"disease" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV · "diseases" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "disease" and "diseases" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "disease" or "diseases" show up more?
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 "disease" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "diseases" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #516,203 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "disease" and "diseases" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "disease vs disuse". 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 #516,203 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.