Which to use
“kite” and “kites” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,945
- “kite” frequency rank
- #30,474
- “kites” frequency rank
- 44419
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | kite | kites |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A bird of prey of the family Accipitridae. | plural of kite |
Where the eye mixes kite and kites
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. kite runs 4 letters (CVCV) against kites's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses kite with kites
A purely visual mix-up. kite (/kaɪt/) 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 differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “kite” sits inside “kites”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44419, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
kite is recorded at frequency rank #13,945, classified as anoun, pronounced /kaɪt/. 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 44419, this pair ranks #230,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of kite vs kites
Shared letters: eikt. Private to "kite": -. Private to "kites": s.
"kite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "kites" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "kite" and "kites" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "kite" or "kites"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "kite" and "kites" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "kite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #230,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "kite" and "kites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kites vs knits". 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
Confusion rank #230,733 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.