Which to use
“gates” is a noun and “gazes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,304
- “gates” frequency rank
- #46,480
- “gazes” frequency rank
- 50784
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gates | gazes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of gate | third-person singular simple present indicative of gaze |
Where the eye mixes gates and gazes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gates is /ɡeɪts/ while gazes is /ˈɡeɪ.zɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - t in “gates” becomes z in “gazes”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gates is recorded at frequency rank #4,304, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡeɪts/. gazes is at rank #46,480, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɡeɪ.zɪz/.
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 50784, this pair ranks #171,172 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gates vs gazes
Shared letters: aegs. Private to "gates": t. Private to "gazes": z.
"gates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "gazes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC