elephant's vs elephants, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“elephant's” is an adjective and “elephants” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,896
“elephant's” frequency rank: #9,465
“elephants” frequency rank: 59361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	elephant's	elephants
Definition	drunk (intoxicated with alcohol)	plural of elephant

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set elephant's and elephants apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch

elephant's

9 ch

elephants

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: elephant's is anadjective and elephantsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

elephant's is recorded at frequency rank #49,896, classified as anadj. elephants is at rank #9,465, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛl.ɪ.fənts/.

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 59361, this pair ranks #106,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of elephant's vs elephants

Shared letters: aehlnpst. Private to "elephant's": -. Private to "elephants": -.

"elephant's" · 9 letters · shape VCVCCVCCC · "elephants" · 9 letters · shape VCVCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

elephants ← eelphants · elehpants · elepahnts · elephannts · elephanst · elephantss · elephantts · elephatns

Frequency comparison

elephant's#49,896

elephants#9,465

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "elephant's" and "elephants" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "elephant's" is an adjective and "elephants" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "elephant's" or "elephants"?

"elephants" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,465 in our English list, against #49,896 for "elephant's". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering elephant's vs elephants

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “elephant's”; for a noun, it's “elephants”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “elephant's” entry
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