Which to use
“dives” and “doves” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,580
- “dives” frequency rank
- #25,361
- “doves” frequency rank
- 44941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dives | doves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of dive | plural of dove |
Where the eye mixes dives and doves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dives vs doves
A purely visual mix-up. dives (/ˈdaɪvz/) and doves (/dʌvz/) 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 - i in “dives” becomes o in “doves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dives is recorded at frequency rank #19,580, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdaɪvz/. doves is at rank #25,361, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʌvz/.
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 44941, this pair ranks #225,923 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dives vs doves
Shared letters: desv. Private to "dives": i. Private to "doves": o.
"dives" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "doves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dives" and "doves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dives" or "doves"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dives" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "doves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #225,923 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dives" and "doves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dikes vs doves". 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 #225,923 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.