kingsvskitesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,566
“kings” frequency rank
#30,474
“kites” frequency rank
34040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kings kites
Definition plural of king plural of kite

Where the eye mixes kings and kites

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

5 ch
kings
5 ch
kites

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. kings (/kɪŋz/) and kites (/kaɪts/) 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 34040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kings is recorded at frequency rank #3,566, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɪŋz/. kites is at rank #30,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kaɪts/.

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 34040, this pair ranks #324,166 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kings vs kites

Shared letters: iks. Private to "kings": gn. Private to "kites": et.

"kings" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "kites" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kingsikngs · kigns · kinggs · kingss · kinngs · kinsg · kkings · knigs
  • kitesiktes · kiets · kitess · kitse · kittes · kkites · kties

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kings" and "kites" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɪŋz/ versus /kaɪts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "kings" or "kites"?
"kings" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,566 in our English list, against #30,474 for "kites". 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