Which to use
“materialism” and “materials” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,210
- “materialism” frequency rank
- #1,731
- “materials” frequency rank
- 28941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | materialism | materials |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Constant concern over material possessions and wealth; a great or excessive regard for worldly concerns. | plural of material |
Where the eye mixes materialism and materials
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses materialism with materials
A purely visual mix-up. materialism (/məˈtɪɹiəlɪzəm/) and materials (/məˈtɪɹi.əlz/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
materialism is recorded at frequency rank #27,210, classified as anoun, pronounced /məˈtɪɹiəlɪzəm/. materials is at rank #1,731, tagged as anoun, pronounced /məˈtɪɹi.əlz/.
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 28941, this pair ranks #367,053 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of materialism vs materials
Shared letters: aeilmrst. Private to "materialism": -. Private to "materials": -.
"materialism" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVCC · "materials" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- materialism ← amterialism · maetrialism · mateiralism · materailism · materiailsm · materialims · materialismm · materialissm
- materials ← amterials · maetrials · mateirals · materails · materialls · materialss · materiasl · materilas
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "materialism" for "materials" ever safe?
Which is more common, "materialism" or "materials"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "materialism" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "materials" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #367,053 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "materialism" and "materials" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "materialism vs materialist". 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 #367,053 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.