divervsdiversWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,892
“diver” frequency rank
#12,407
“divers” frequency rank
29299
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature diver divers
Definition Someone who dives, especially as a sport. plural of diver

Where the eye mixes diver and divers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
diver
6 ch
divers

Why the eye confuses diver with divers

A purely visual mix-up. diver (/ˈdaɪ̯və(ɹ)/) 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 extra letter(s) - “diver” sits inside “divers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

diver is recorded at frequency rank #16,892, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdaɪ̯və(ɹ)/. 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 29299, this pair ranks #364,106 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of diver vs divers

Shared letters: deirv. Private to "diver": -. Private to "divers": s.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diverddiver · dievr · diverr · divre · divver · dvier · idver
  • diversddivers · dievrs · diverrs · diverss · divesr · divres · divvers · dviers

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "diver" and "divers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈdaɪ̯və(ɹ)/ versus /ˈdaɪvə(ɹ)z/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "diver" 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 #16,892 for "diver". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "diver" and "divers" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "diver" 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 #364,106 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "diver" and "divers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dimer vs diver". 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 #364,106 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