Which to use
“king” is a noun and “kiss” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #697
- “king” frequency rank
- #2,586
- “kiss” frequency rank
- 3283
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | king | kiss |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A male monarch; a man who heads a monarchy; in an absolute monarchy, the supreme ruler of his nation. | To touch with the lips or press the lips against, usually to show love or affection or passion, or as part of a greeting. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set king and kiss apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
king and kiss form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3283, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
king is recorded at frequency rank #697, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɪŋ/. kiss is at rank #2,586, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɪs/.
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 3283, this pair ranks #522,567 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "king" and "kiss" be used interchangeably?
Remembering king vs kiss
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “king”; for a verb, it's “kiss”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “king” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable