Which to use
“guest” and “guests” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,579
- “guest” frequency rank
- #3,495
- “guests” frequency rank
- 6074
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | guest | guests |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A recipient of hospitality, especially someone staying by invitation at the house of another. | plural of guest |
Where the eye mixes guest and guests
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. guest (/ɡɛst/) and guests (/ɡɛsts/) 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) - “guest” sits inside “guests”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6074, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
guest is recorded at frequency rank #2,579, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɛst/. guests is at rank #3,495, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɛsts/.
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 6074, this pair ranks #512,849 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of guest vs guests
Shared letters: egstu. Private to "guest": -. Private to "guests": -.
"guest" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "guests" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC