magazinevsmagazinesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,869
“magazine” frequency rank
#6,375
“magazines” frequency rank
8244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature magazine magazines
Definition A nonacademic, periodical publication which consists of articles by multiple writers on some broad topic or theme. plural of magazine

Where the eye mixes magazine and magazines

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
magazine
9 ch
magazines

Look-alike desk: magazine vs magazines

A purely visual mix-up. magazine (/mæɡ.əˈziːn/) and magazines (/mæɡəˈziːnz/) 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) - “magazine” sits inside “magazines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

magazine is recorded at frequency rank #1,869, classified as anoun, pronounced /mæɡ.əˈziːn/. magazines is at rank #6,375, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mæɡəˈziːnz/.

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 8244, this pair ranks #503,457 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of magazine vs magazines

Shared letters: aegimnz. Private to "magazine": -. Private to "magazines": s.

"magazine" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "magazines" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • magazineamgazine · maagzine · magaizne · magazien · magazinne · magaznie · magazzine · maggazine
  • magazinesamgazines · maagzines · magaiznes · magaziens · magaziness · magazinnes · magazinse · magaznies

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "magazine" and "magazines" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/mæɡ.əˈziːn/ versus /mæɡəˈziːnz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "magazine" or "magazines"?
"magazine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,869 in our English list, against #6,375 for "magazines". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "magazine" and "magazines" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "magazine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "magazines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #503,457 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "magazine" and "magazines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magazine vs margarine". 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 #503,457 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list