Which to use
“grays” and “greats” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,740
- “grays” frequency rank
- #19,849
- “greats” frequency rank
- 55589
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grays | greats |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of gray | plural of great |
Where the eye mixes grays and greats
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. grays runs 5 letters (CCVVC) against greats's 6 (CCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between grays and greats
A purely visual mix-up. grays (/ɡɹeɪz/) and greats (/ɡɹeɪts/) 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 55589, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grays is recorded at frequency rank #35,740, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹeɪz/. greats is at rank #19,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹeɪts/.
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 55589, this pair ranks #132,472 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of grays vs greats
Shared letters: agrs. Private to "grays": y. Private to "greats": et.
"grays" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "greats" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "grays" and "greats" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "grays" vs "greats" - which ranks higher?
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 "grays" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "greats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #132,472 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grays" and "greats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grasse vs grays". 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 #132,472 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.