Which to use
“magpie” and “magpies” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,907
- “magpie” frequency rank
- #34,176
- “magpies” frequency rank
- 67083
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | magpie | magpies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | One of several kinds of bird in the family Corvidae, especially Pica pica. | plural of magpie |
Letter map: magpie vs magpies
Shared letters muted; letters that set magpie and magpies apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. magpie runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against magpies's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - magpie / magpies
magpie and magpies 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) - “magpie” sits inside “magpies”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
magpie is recorded at frequency rank #32,907, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmæɡˌpaɪ/. magpies is at rank #34,176, 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 67083, this pair ranks #65,038 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of magpie vs magpies
Shared letters: aegimp. Private to "magpie": -. Private to "magpies": s.
"magpie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "magpies" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "magpie" and "magpies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "magpie" or "magpies" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "magpie" vs "magpies" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "magpie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "magpies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,038 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "magpie" and "magpies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magpie vs Massie". 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 #65,038 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.