Which to use
“industrial” is an adjective and “industries” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,001
- “industrial” frequency rank
- #3,501
- “industries” frequency rank
- 5502
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | industrial | industries |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of or relating to industry, notably manufacturing. | plural of industry |
Where the eye mixes industrial and industries
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. industrial and industries follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between industrial and industries
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: industrial is /ɪnˈdʌs.tɹi.əl/ while industries is /ˈɪndəstɹiz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
industrial is recorded at frequency rank #2,001, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈdʌs.tɹi.əl/. industries is at rank #3,501, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪndəstɹiz/.
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 5502, this pair ranks #515,084 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of industrial vs industries
Shared letters: dinrstu. Private to "industrial": al. Private to "industries": e.
"industrial" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCCVVC · "industries" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- industrial ← idnustrial · inddustrial · indsutrial · indusrtial · indusstrial · industiral · industrail · industriall
- industries ← idnustries · inddustries · indsutries · indusrties · indusstries · industires · industreis · industriess
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "industrial" and "industries" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "industrial" or "industries"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "industrial" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "industries" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #515,084 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "industrial" and "industries" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "industries vs industrious". 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 #515,084 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.