Which to use
“mild” is an adjective and “miles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,982
- “mild” frequency rank
- #1,090
- “miles” frequency rank
- 7072
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mild | miles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gentle and not easily angered. | plural of mile |
Where the eye mixes mild and miles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mild is /ˈmaɪld/ while miles is /maɪlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mild is recorded at frequency rank #5,982, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmaɪld/. miles is at rank #1,090, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maɪlz/.
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 7072, this pair ranks #508,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mild vs miles
Shared letters: ilm. Private to "mild": d. Private to "miles": es.
"mild" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "miles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC