Which to use
“drip” is a verb and “drops” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,329
- “drip” frequency rank
- #4,080
- “drops” frequency rank
- 17409
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drip | drops |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To fall one drop at a time. | plural of drop |
Where the eye mixes drip and drops
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: drip vs drops
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drip is /dɹɪp/ while drops is /dɹɑps/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drip is recorded at frequency rank #13,329, classified as averb, pronounced /dɹɪp/. drops is at rank #4,080, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɹɑps/.
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 17409, this pair ranks #451,621 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of drip vs drops
Shared letters: dpr. Private to "drip": i. Private to "drops": os.
"drip" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "drops" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drip" for "drops" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "drip" or "drops" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "drip" and "drops" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "drip" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drops" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #451,621 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drip" and "drops" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DNP vs drip". 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 #451,621 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.