Which to use
“gold” and “golds” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #692
- “gold” frequency rank
- #24,460
- “golds” frequency rank
- 25152
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gold | golds |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79 and symbol Au. | plural of gold |
Where the eye mixes gold and golds
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gold runs 4 letters (CVCC) against golds's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between gold and golds
A purely visual mix-up. gold (/ɡəʊld/) and golds (/ɡəʊldz/) 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) - “gold” sits inside “golds”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gold is recorded at frequency rank #692, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡəʊld/. golds is at rank #24,460, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡəʊldz/.
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 25152, this pair ranks #396,546 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gold vs golds
Shared letters: dglo. Private to "gold": -. Private to "golds": s.
"gold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "golds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gold" and "golds" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "gold" or "golds" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "gold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "golds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,546 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gold" and "golds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "goad vs golds". 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 #396,546 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.