naturalvsnaturesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: natural is a adjective, natures is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“natural” is an adjective and “natures” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#813
“natural” frequency rank
#30,149
“natures” frequency rank
30962
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature natural natures
Definition Existing in nature. plural of nature

Letter map: natural vs natures

Shared letters muted; letters that set natural and natures apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
natural
7 ch
natures

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: natural is anadjective and naturesanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30962, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

natural is recorded at frequency rank #813, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/. natures is at rank #30,149, tagged as anoun.

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 30962, this pair ranks #350,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of natural vs natures

Shared letters: anrtu. Private to "natural": l. Private to "natures": es.

"natural" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "natures" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • naturalantural · natrual · nattural · natuarl · naturall · naturla · naturral · nautral
  • naturesantures · natrues · nattures · natuers · naturess · naturres · naturse · nautres

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "natural" and "natures" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "natural" is an adjective and "natures" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "natural" or "natures"?
"natural" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #813 in our English list, against #30,149 for "natures". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list