Which to use
“doubt” is a verb and “doubts” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,333
- “doubt” frequency rank
- #7,677
- “doubts” frequency rank
- 9010
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doubt | doubts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To be undecided about; to lack confidence in; to disbelieve, to question. | plural of doubt |
Where the eye mixes doubt and doubts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: doubt is /daʊt/ while doubts is /daʊts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “doubt” sits inside “doubts”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doubt is recorded at frequency rank #1,333, classified as averb, pronounced /daʊt/. doubts is at rank #7,677, tagged as anoun, pronounced /daʊts/.
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 9010, this pair ranks #499,539 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of doubt vs doubts
Shared letters: bdotu. Private to "doubt": -. Private to "doubts": s.
"doubt" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "doubts" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC