gunsvsgutsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,205
“guns” frequency rank
#10,055
“guts” frequency rank
12260
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guns guts
Definition plural of gun plural of gut

Where the eye mixes guns and guts

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

4 ch
guns
4 ch
guts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. guns (/ɡʌnz/) and guts (/ɡʌts/) 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 a single letter - n in “guns” becomes t in “guts”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guns is recorded at frequency rank #2,205, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡʌnz/. guts is at rank #10,055, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡʌts/.

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 12260, this pair ranks #482,561 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of guns vs guts

Shared letters: gsu. Private to "guns": n. Private to "guts": t.

"guns" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "guts" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gunsgguns · gnus · gunns · gunss · gusn · ugns
  • gutsgguts · gtus · gutss · gutts · ugts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "guns" and "guts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɡʌnz/ versus /ɡʌts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "guns" or "guts"?
"guns" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,205 in our English list, against #10,055 for "guts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list