Which to use
“frown” and “frowns” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,641
- “frown” frequency rank
- #42,142
- “frowns” frequency rank
- 62783
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | frown | frowns |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A wrinkling of the forehead with the eyebrows brought together, typically indicating displeasure, severity, or concentration. | plural of frown |
Where the eye mixes frown and frowns
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. frown runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against frowns's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses frown with frowns
A purely visual mix-up. frown (/fɹaʊn/) and frowns (/fɹaʊnz/) 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) - “frown” sits inside “frowns”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
frown is recorded at frequency rank #20,641, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɹaʊn/. frowns is at rank #42,142, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹaʊnz/.
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 62783, this pair ranks #86,552 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of frown vs frowns
Shared letters: fnorw. Private to "frown": -. Private to "frowns": s.
"frown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "frowns" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "frown" for "frowns" ever safe?
Which is more common, "frown" or "frowns"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "frown" and "frowns" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "frown" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frowns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,552 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "frown" and "frowns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Frans vs frowns". 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 #86,552 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.