micevsmileWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,166
“mice” frequency rank
#2,544
“mile” frequency rank
8710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mice mile
Definition plural of mouse The international mile: a unit of length precisely equal to 1.609344 kilometers established by treaty among Anglophone nations in 1959, divided into 5,280 feet or 1,760 yards.

Where the eye mixes mice and mile

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
mice
4 ch
mile

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. mice (/maɪs/) and mile (/maɪ̯l/) 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 a single letter - c in “mice” becomes l in “mile”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mice is recorded at frequency rank #6,166, classified as anoun, pronounced /maɪs/. mile is at rank #2,544, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maɪ̯l/.

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 8710, this pair ranks #501,107 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mice vs mile

Shared letters: eim. Private to "mice": c. Private to "mile": l.

"mice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mile" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miceimce · mcie · micce · miec · mmice
  • mileimle · miel · mlie · mmile

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "mice" and "mile" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/maɪs/ versus /maɪ̯l/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mice" or "mile"?
"mile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,544 in our English list, against #6,166 for "mice". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "mice" and "mile". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #501,107 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mice" and "mile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mice vs miser". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list