Which to use
“husband” and “husbands” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,080
- “husband” frequency rank
- #10,062
- “husbands” frequency rank
- 11142
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | husband | husbands |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A man in a marriage or marital relationship, especially in relation to his spouse. | plural of husband |
Where the eye mixes husband and husbands
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. husband runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against husbands's 8 (CVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between husband and husbands
A purely visual mix-up. husband (/ˈhʌz.bənd/) and husbands (/ˈhʌzbəndz/) 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) - “husband” sits inside “husbands”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11142, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
husband is recorded at frequency rank #1,080, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhʌz.bənd/. husbands is at rank #10,062, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhʌzbəndz/.
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 11142, this pair ranks #488,676 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of husband vs husbands
Shared letters: abdhnsu. Private to "husband": -. Private to "husbands": -.
"husband" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "husbands" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "husband" and "husbands" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "husband" or "husbands"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "husband" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "husbands" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #488,676 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "husband" and "husbands" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "husbandry vs husbands". 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 #488,676 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.