Which to use
“downs” is a noun and “drown” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,914
- “downs” frequency rank
- #11,534
- “drown” frequency rank
- 19448
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | downs | drown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of down | To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid. |
Where the eye mixes downs and drown
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses downs with drown
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: downs is /daʊnz/ while drown is /dɹaʊn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
downs is recorded at frequency rank #7,914, classified as anoun, pronounced /daʊnz/. drown is at rank #11,534, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɹaʊn/.
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 19448, this pair ranks #438,114 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of downs vs drown
Shared letters: dnow. Private to "downs": s. Private to "drown": r.
"downs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "drown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "downs" and "drown" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "downs" or "drown"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "downs" and "drown" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "downs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,114 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "downs" and "drown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "droll vs drown". 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 #438,114 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.