Which to use
“drowns” is a verb and “drowsy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,268
- “drowns” frequency rank
- #36,116
- “drowsy” frequency rank
- 71384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drowns | drowsy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of drown | Inclined to drowse; heavy with sleepiness |
Where the eye mixes drowns and drowsy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between drowns and drowsy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drowns is /dɹaʊnz/ while drowsy is /ˈdɹaʊzi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drowns is recorded at frequency rank #35,268, classified as averb, pronounced /dɹaʊnz/. drowsy is at rank #36,116, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɹaʊzi/.
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 71384, this pair ranks #46,955 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of drowns vs drowsy
Shared letters: dorsw. Private to "drowns": n. Private to "drowsy": y.
"drowns" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "drowsy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drowns" for "drowsy" ever safe?
Which is more common, "drowns" or "drowsy"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "drowns" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drowsy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,955 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drowns" and "drowsy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "downy vs drowsy". 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 #46,955 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.