mindsvsminesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,315
“minds” frequency rank
#5,340
“mines” frequency rank
8655
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature minds mines
Definition plural of mind plural of mine

Where the eye mixes minds and mines

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
minds
5 ch
mines

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. minds (/maɪndz/) and mines (/maɪnz/) 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 - d in “minds” becomes e in “mines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8655, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

minds is recorded at frequency rank #3,315, classified as anoun, pronounced /maɪndz/. mines is at rank #5,340, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maɪnz/.

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 8655, this pair ranks #501,389 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of minds vs mines

Shared letters: imns. Private to "minds": d. Private to "mines": e.

"minds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "mines" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mindsimnds · midns · mindds · mindss · minnds · minsd · mminds · mnids
  • minesimnes · miens · miness · minnes · minse · mmines · mnies

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "minds" and "mines" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/maɪndz/ versus /maɪnz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "minds" or "mines"?
"minds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,315 in our English list, against #5,340 for "mines". 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 "minds" and "mines". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "minds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #501,389 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "minds" and "mines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mines 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