gapsvsglassWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,795
“gaps” frequency rank
#1,485
“glass” frequency rank
10280
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gaps glass
Definition plural of gap An amorphous solid, often transparent substance, usually made by melting silica sand with various additives (for most purposes, a mixture of soda, potash and lime is added).

Where the eye mixes gaps and glass

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
gaps
5 ch
glass

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. gaps (/ɡæps/) and glass (/ɡlɑːs/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10280, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gaps is recorded at frequency rank #8,795, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡæps/. glass is at rank #1,485, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡlɑːs/.

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 10280, this pair ranks #493,109 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of gaps vs glass

Shared letters: ags. Private to "gaps": p. Private to "glass": l.

"gaps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "glass" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gapsagps · gapps · gapss · ggaps · gpas
  • glassgalss · gglass · glas · gllass · glsas · lgass

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gaps" and "glass" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɡæps/ versus /ɡlɑːs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gaps" or "glass"?
"glass" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,485 in our English list, against #8,795 for "gaps". 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