Which to use
“lance” and “lances” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,807
- “lance” frequency rank
- #48,314
- “lances” frequency rank
- 56121
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lance | lances |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen. | plural of lance |
Where the eye mixes lance and lances
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lance with lances
A purely visual mix-up. lance (/lɑːns/) and lances (/ˈlænsɪz/) 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) - “lance” sits inside “lances”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56121, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lance is recorded at frequency rank #7,807, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɑːns/. lances is at rank #48,314, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlænsɪz/.
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 56121, this pair ranks #128,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lance vs lances
Shared letters: aceln. Private to "lance": -. Private to "lances": s.
"lance" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lances" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lance" and "lances" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "lance" or "lances" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lance" and "lances" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lances" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #128,575 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lance" and "lances" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lances vs Laney". 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 #128,575 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.