gridvsguildWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,330
“grid” frequency rank
#7,923
“guild” frequency rank
13253
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grid guild
Definition A rectangular array of squares or rectangles of equal size, such as in a crossword puzzle. A group or association mainly of tradespeople made up of merchants, craftspeople, or artisans, particularly in the Middle Ages, established to oversee and protect their specific commercial interests and to provide mutual aid.

Where the eye mixes grid and guild

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
grid
5 ch
guild

Visual trap between grid and guild

A purely visual mix-up. grid (/ɡɹɪd/) and guild (/ɡɪld/) 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 13253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grid is recorded at frequency rank #5,330, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹɪd/. guild is at rank #7,923, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɪld/.

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 13253, this pair ranks #476,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grid vs guild

Shared letters: dgi. Private to "grid": r. Private to "guild": lu.

"grid" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "guild" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gridggrid · gird · grdi · gridd · grrid · rgid
  • guildgguild · giuld · guidl · guildd · guilld · gulid · ugild

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "grid" for "guild" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɡɹɪd/ versus /ɡɪld/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "grid" vs "guild" - which ranks higher?
"grid" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,330 in our English list, against #7,923 for "guild". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grid" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "guild" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #476,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grid" and "guild" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "guild vs gurl". 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 #476,870 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