goldsvsgolemConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,460
“golds” frequency rank
#37,470
“golem” frequency rank
61930
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature golds golem
Definition plural of gold A humanoid creature made from clay, animated by magic.

Where the eye mixes golds and golem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. golds (CVCCC) and golem (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
golds
5 ch
golem

Look-alike desk: golds vs golem

A purely visual mix-up. golds (/ɡəʊldz/) and golem (/ˈɡəʊ.ləm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61930, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

golds is recorded at frequency rank #24,460, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡəʊldz/. golem is at rank #37,470, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡəʊ.ləm/.

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 61930, this pair ranks #91,331 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of golds vs golem

Shared letters: glo. Private to "golds": ds. Private to "golem": em.

"golds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "golem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • golds ← ggolds · glods · godls · goldds · goldss · gollds · golsd · oglds
  • golem ← ggolem · gloem · goelm · golemm · gollem · golme · oglem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "golds" for "golem" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɡəʊldz/ versus /ˈɡəʊ.ləm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "golds" or "golem" show up more?
"golds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,460 in our English list, against #37,470 for "golem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "golds" and "golem" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "golds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "golem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #91,331 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "golds" and "golem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "goer vs golem". 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 #91,331 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list