Which to use
“ember” and “embers” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,019
- “ember” frequency rank
- #33,633
- “embers” frequency rank
- 63652
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ember | embers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A piece of coal or wood glowing by heat; a hot coal. | The smoldering or glowing remains of a fire, smoldering ash. |
Letter map: ember vs embers
Shared letters muted; letters that set ember and embers apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. ember runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against embers's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Spelling & dictionary notes on ember vs embers
ember and embers are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ember” sits inside “embers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ember is recorded at frequency rank #30,019, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛm.bə/. embers is at rank #33,633, tagged as anoun.
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 63652, this pair ranks #81,810 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ember vs embers
Shared letters: bemr. Private to "ember": -. Private to "embers": s.
"ember" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "embers" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ember" and "embers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ember" or "embers"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ember" and "embers".
- Full dictionary entry for "ember" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "embers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #81,810 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ember" and "embers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "embers vs Enders". 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 #81,810 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.