Which to use
“flute” and “flutes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,541
- “flute” frequency rank
- #36,145
- “flutes” frequency rank
- 50686
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flute | flutes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A woodwind instrument consisting of a tube with a row of holes that produce sound through vibrations caused by air blown across the edge of the holes, often tuned by plugging one or more holes with a finger; the Western concert flute, a transverse side-blown flute of European origin. | plural of flute |
Where the eye mixes flute and flutes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. flute (/flu(ː)t/) and flutes (/fluːts/) 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) - “flute” sits inside “flutes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flute is recorded at frequency rank #14,541, classified as anoun, pronounced /flu(ː)t/. flutes is at rank #36,145, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fluːts/.
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 50686, this pair ranks #172,052 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of flute vs flutes
Shared letters: efltu. Private to "flute": -. Private to "flutes": s.
"flute" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "flutes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC