MissesvsmistsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,958
“Misses” frequency rank
#35,833
“mists” frequency rank
44791
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Misses mists
Definition plural of Miss plural of mist

Where the eye mixes Misses and mists

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

6 ch
Misses
5 ch
mists

Visual trap between Misses and mists

A purely visual mix-up. Misses (/ˈmɪsɪz/) and mists (/mɪsts/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Misses is recorded at frequency rank #8,958, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɪsɪz/. mists is at rank #35,833, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mɪsts/.

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 44791, this pair ranks #227,303 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Misses vs mists

Shared letters: ims. Private to "Misses": e. Private to "mists": t.

"Misses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mists" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Missesimsses · mises · misess · missess · missse · mmisses · msises
  • mistsimsts · missts · mistss · mistts · mitss · mmists · msits

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Misses" and "mists" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmɪsɪz/ versus /mɪsts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Misses" or "mists"?
"Misses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,958 in our English list, against #35,833 for "mists". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Misses" and "mists" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Misses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mists" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #227,303 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Misses" and "mists" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "miser vs mists". 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 #227,303 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list