Which to use
“effort” and “escort” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,268
- “effort” frequency rank
- #7,132
- “escort” frequency rank
- 8400
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | effort | escort |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The work involved in performing an activity; exertion. | A group of people or vehicles, generally armed, who go with a person or people of importance to safeguard them on a journey or mission. |
Where the eye mixes effort and escort
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between effort and escort
A purely visual mix-up. effort (/ˈɛf.ət/) and escort (/ˈɛs.kɔɹt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
effort is recorded at frequency rank #1,268, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛf.ət/. escort is at rank #7,132, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛs.kɔɹt/.
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 8400, this pair ranks #502,683 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of effort vs escort
Shared letters: eort. Private to "effort": f. Private to "escort": cs.
"effort" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "escort" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "effort" and "escort" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "effort" or "escort" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "effort" and "escort" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "effort" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "escort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #502,683 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "effort" and "escort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Epcot vs escort". 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 #502,683 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.