Which to use
“mouth” and “mouths” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,569
- “mouth” frequency rank
- #10,891
- “mouths” frequency rank
- 12460
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mouth | mouths |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The front opening of a creature through which food is ingested. | plural of mouth |
Where the eye mixes mouth and mouths
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. mouth runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against mouths's 6 (CVVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mouth and mouths
A purely visual mix-up. mouth (/maʊθ/) and mouths (/maʊðz/) 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) - “mouth” sits inside “mouths”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mouth is recorded at frequency rank #1,569, classified as anoun, pronounced /maʊθ/. mouths is at rank #10,891, tagged as anoun, pronounced /maʊðz/.
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 12460, this pair ranks #481,440 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mouth vs mouths
Shared letters: hmotu. Private to "mouth": -. Private to "mouths": s.
"mouth" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "mouths" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mouth" for "mouths" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mouth" vs "mouths" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mouth" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mouths" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #481,440 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mouth" and "mouths" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meath vs mouth". 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 #481,440 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.