Which to use
“guide” and “guilds” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,829
- “guide” frequency rank
- #26,102
- “guilds” frequency rank
- 27931
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | guide | guilds |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Someone who guides, especially someone hired to show people around a place or an institution and offer information and explanation, or to lead them through dangerous terrain. | plural of guild |
Where the eye mixes guide and guilds
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between guide and guilds
A purely visual mix-up. guide (/ɡaɪd/) and guilds (/ɡɪldz/) 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 27931, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
guide is recorded at frequency rank #1,829, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡaɪd/. guilds is at rank #26,102, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɪldz/.
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 27931, this pair ranks #374,989 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of guide vs guilds
Shared letters: dgiu. Private to "guide": e. Private to "guilds": ls.
"guide" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "guilds" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "guide" for "guilds" ever safe?
Frequency check: "guide" vs "guilds" - which ranks higher?
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 "guide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "guilds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,989 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "guide" and "guilds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gilda vs guilds". 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 #374,989 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.