groupsvsgrouseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#786
“groups” frequency rank
#24,178
“grouse” frequency rank
24964
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature groups grouse
Definition plural of group Any of various game birds of the subfamily Tetraoninae which inhabit temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere; specifically, the red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica) native to heather moorland on the British Isles.

Where the eye mixes groups and grouse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
groups
6 ch
grouse

Look-alike desk: groups vs grouse

A purely visual mix-up. groups (/ɡɹuːps/) and grouse (/ɡɹaʊs/) 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 24964, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

groups is recorded at frequency rank #786, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹuːps/. grouse is at rank #24,178, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹaʊs/.

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 24964, this pair ranks #397,955 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of groups vs grouse

Shared letters: gorsu. Private to "groups": p. Private to "grouse": e.

"groups" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC  ·  "grouse" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • groupsggroups · gorups · gropus · groupps · groupss · grousp · grroups · gruops
  • grouseggrouse · goruse · grosue · groues · grousse · grrouse · gruose · rgouse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "groups" and "grouse" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɡɹuːps/ versus /ɡɹaʊs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "groups" or "grouse"?
"groups" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #786 in our English list, against #24,178 for "grouse". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "groups" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grouse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,955 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "groups" and "grouse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grosser vs grouse". 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 #397,955 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