Which to use
“lump” and “lumps” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,065
- “lump” frequency rank
- #22,733
- “lumps” frequency rank
- 33798
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lump | lumps |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Something that protrudes, sticks out, or sticks together; a cluster or blob; a mound or mass of no particular shape. | A beating or verbal abuse. |
Letter map: lump vs lumps
Shared letters muted; letters that set lump and lumps apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Corpus notes: lump and lumps
lump and lumps are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “lump” sits inside “lumps”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33798, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lump is recorded at frequency rank #11,065, classified as anoun, pronounced /lʌmp/. lumps is at rank #22,733, tagged as anoun.
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 33798, this pair ranks #326,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lump vs lumps
Shared letters: lmpu. Private to "lump": -. Private to "lumps": s.
"lump" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lumps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lump" for "lumps" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "lump" or "lumps" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lump" and "lumps".
- Full dictionary entry for "lump" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lumps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #326,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lump" and "lumps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lum vs lumps". 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 #326,319 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.