Which to use
“glove” and “gloves” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,703
- “glove” frequency rank
- #6,690
- “gloves” frequency rank
- 17393
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | glove | gloves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An item of clothing, covering all or part of the hand and fingers, but usually allowing independent movement of the fingers. | plural of glove |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set glove and gloves apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
glove and gloves form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “glove” sits inside “gloves” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
glove is recorded at frequency rank #10,703, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡlʌv/. gloves is at rank #6,690, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡlʌvz/.
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 17393, this pair ranks #451,700 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "glove" and "gloves" be used interchangeably?
Remembering glove vs gloves
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “glove” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable