kindvskingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#337
“kind” frequency rank
#697
“king” frequency rank
1034
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kind king
Definition A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together. A male monarch; a man who heads a monarchy; in an absolute monarchy, the supreme ruler of his nation.

Where the eye mixes kind and king

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

4 ch
kind
4 ch
king

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. kind (/kaɪnd/) and king (/ˈkɪŋ/) 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 - d in “kind” becomes g in “king”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kind is recorded at frequency rank #337, classified as anoun, pronounced /kaɪnd/. king is at rank #697, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɪŋ/.

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 1034, this pair ranks #528,251 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kind vs king

Shared letters: ikn. Private to "kind": d. Private to "king": g.

"kind" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "king" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kindiknd · kidn · kindd · kinnd · kkind · knid
  • kingikng · kign · kingg · kinng · kking · knig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kind" and "king" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kaɪnd/ versus /ˈkɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "kind" or "king"?
"kind" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #337 in our English list, against #697 for "king". 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