Which to use
“drown” and “drowns” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,534
- “drown” frequency rank
- #35,268
- “drowns” frequency rank
- 46802
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drown | drowns |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To die from suffocation while immersed in water or other fluid. | third-person singular simple present indicative of drown |
Where the eye mixes drown and drowns
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. drown runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against drowns's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: drown vs drowns
A purely visual mix-up. drown (/dɹaʊn/) and drowns (/dɹaʊnz/) 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) - “drown” sits inside “drowns”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drown is recorded at frequency rank #11,534, classified as averb, pronounced /dɹaʊn/. drowns is at rank #35,268, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɹaʊnz/.
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 46802, this pair ranks #208,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drown vs drowns
Shared letters: dnorw. Private to "drown": -. Private to "drowns": s.
"drown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "drowns" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "drown" and "drowns" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "drown" or "drowns"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "drown" and "drowns" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "drown" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drowns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #208,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drown" and "drowns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "downy vs drowns". 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 #208,332 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.