Which to use
“nuke” and “nukes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,919
- “nuke” frequency rank
- #24,257
- “nukes” frequency rank
- 44176
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nuke | nukes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A nuclear weapon. | plural of nuke |
Where the eye mixes nuke and nukes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between nuke and nukes
A purely visual mix-up. nuke (/njuːk/) and nukes (/njuːks/) 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) - “nuke” sits inside “nukes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
nuke is recorded at frequency rank #19,919, classified as anoun, pronounced /njuːk/. nukes is at rank #24,257, tagged as anoun, pronounced /njuːks/.
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 44176, this pair ranks #232,992 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of nuke vs nukes
Shared letters: eknu. Private to "nuke": -. Private to "nukes": s.
"nuke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "nukes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "nuke" for "nukes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "nuke" vs "nukes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "nuke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nukes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,992 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nuke" and "nukes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Noyes vs nukes". 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 #232,992 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.