kindvskitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#337
“kind” frequency rank
#3,505
“kit” frequency rank
3842
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kind kit
Definition A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together. A circular wooden vessel, made of hooped staves.

Where the eye mixes kind and kit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
kind
3 ch
kit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. kind (/kaɪnd/) and kit (/kɪt/) 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 3842, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kind is recorded at frequency rank #337, classified as anoun, pronounced /kaɪnd/. kit is at rank #3,505, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɪt/.

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 3842, this pair ranks #520,825 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kind vs kit

Shared letters: ik. Private to "kind": dn. Private to "kit": t.

"kind" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "kit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kindiknd · kidn · kindd · kinnd · kkind · knid

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kind" and "kit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kaɪnd/ versus /kɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "kind" or "kit"?
"kind" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #337 in our English list, against #3,505 for "kit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "kind" and "kit". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kind" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #520,825 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kind" and "kit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kit vs Kop". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list