Which to use
“mince” and “mints” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,293
- “mince” frequency rank
- #28,295
- “mints” frequency rank
- 56588
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mince | mints |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Finely chopped meat; minced meat. | plural of mint |
Where the eye mixes mince and mints
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mince (CVCCV) and mints (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between mince and mints
A purely visual mix-up. mince (/mɪns/) and mints (/mɪnts/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56588, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mince is recorded at frequency rank #28,293, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɪns/. mints is at rank #28,295, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɪnts/.
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 56588, this pair ranks #125,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mince vs mints
Shared letters: imn. Private to "mince": ce. Private to "mints": st.
"mince" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mints" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "mince" and "mints" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "mince" or "mints" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mince" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mints" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #125,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mince" and "mints" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Minot vs mints". 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 #125,194 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.