kindvskiteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#337
“kind” frequency rank
#13,945
“kite” frequency rank
14282
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kind kite
Definition A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together. A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae.

Where the eye mixes kind and kite

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

4 ch
kind
4 ch
kite

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. kind (/kaɪnd/) and kite (/kaɪt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kind is recorded at frequency rank #337, classified as anoun, pronounced /kaɪnd/. kite is at rank #13,945, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kaɪt/.

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 14282, this pair ranks #470,975 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of kind vs kite

Shared letters: ik. Private to "kind": dn. Private to "kite": et.

"kind" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "kite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kindiknd · kidn · kindd · kinnd · kkind · knid
  • kiteikte · kiet · kitte · kkite · ktie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kind" and "kite" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kaɪnd/ versus /kaɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "kind" or "kite"?
"kind" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #337 in our English list, against #13,945 for "kite". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list