Which to use
“million” and “millions” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #469
- “million” frequency rank
- #2,304
- “millions” frequency rank
- 2773
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | million | millions |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The cardinal number 1 000 000: 10⁶; a thousand thousand. | plural of million |
Where the eye mixes million and millions
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. million (/ˈmɪl.jən/) and millions (/ˈmɪljənz/) 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) - “million” sits inside “millions”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
million is recorded at frequency rank #469, classified as anum, pronounced /ˈmɪl.jən/. millions is at rank #2,304, tagged as anum, pronounced /ˈmɪljənz/.
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 2773, this pair ranks #524,073 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of million vs millions
Shared letters: ilmno. Private to "million": -. Private to "millions": s.
"million" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "millions" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC