facevsfacesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“face” and “faces” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#335
“face” frequency rank
#2,536
“faces” frequency rank
2871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature face faces
Definition The front part of the head of a human or other animal, featuring the eyes, nose, and mouth, and the surrounding area. plural of face

Where the eye mixes face and faces

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
face
5 ch
faces

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. face (/feɪs/) and faces (/ˈfeɪsɪz/) 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) - “face” sits inside “faces”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

face is recorded at frequency rank #335, classified as anoun, pronounced /feɪs/. faces is at rank #2,536, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfeɪsɪz/.

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 2871, this pair ranks #523,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of face vs faces

Shared letters: acef. Private to "face": -. Private to "faces": s.

"face" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "faces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faceafce · facce · faec · fcae · fface
  • facesafces · facces · facess · facse · faecs · fcaes · ffaces

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "face" and "faces" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/feɪs/ versus /ˈfeɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "face" or "faces"?
"face" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #335 in our English list, against #2,536 for "faces". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list