Which to use
“others” and “otter” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #366
- “others” frequency rank
- #17,917
- “otter” frequency rank
- 18283
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | others | otter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of other | An aquatic or marine carnivorous mammal in the subfamily Lutrinae. |
Where the eye mixes others and otter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. others runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against otter's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: others vs otter
A purely visual mix-up. others (/ˈʌðəz/) and otter (/ˈɒt.ə/) 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 18283, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
others is recorded at frequency rank #366, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʌðəz/. otter is at rank #17,917, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɒt.ə/.
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 18283, this pair ranks #445,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of others vs otter
Shared letters: eort. Private to "others": hs. Private to "otter": -.
"others" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "otter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "others" and "otter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "others" vs "otter" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "others" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "otter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #445,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "others" and "otter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "otter vs ouster". 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 #445,922 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.