pagevspagesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#791
“page” frequency rank
#2,402
“pages” frequency rank
3193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature page pages
Definition One of the many pieces of paper bound together within a book or similar document. plural of page

Where the eye mixes page and pages

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

4 ch
page
5 ch
pages

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. page (/peɪd͡ʒ/) and pages (/ˈpeɪd͡ʒɪz/) 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) - “page” sits inside “pages”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

page is recorded at frequency rank #791, classified as anoun, pronounced /peɪd͡ʒ/. pages is at rank #2,402, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɪd͡ʒɪz/.

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 3193, this pair ranks #522,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of page vs pages

Shared letters: aegp. Private to "page": -. Private to "pages": s.

"page" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pageapge · paeg · pagge · pgae · ppage
  • pagesapges · paegs · pagess · pagges · pagse · pgaes · ppages

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "page" and "pages" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/peɪd͡ʒ/ versus /ˈpeɪd͡ʒɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "page" or "pages"?
"page" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #791 in our English list, against #2,402 for "pages". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list