partyvsportsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#308
“party” frequency rank
#6,396
“ports” frequency rank
6704
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature party ports
Definition A person or group of people constituting one side in a legal proceeding, such as in a legal action or a contract. plural of port

Where the eye mixes party and ports

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
party
5 ch
ports

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. party (/ˈpɑː.ti/) and ports (/pɔɹts/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6704, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

party is recorded at frequency rank #308, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɑː.ti/. ports is at rank #6,396, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɔɹts/.

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 6704, this pair ranks #510,326 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of party vs ports

Shared letters: prt. Private to "party": ay. Private to "ports": os.

"party" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "ports" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partyaprty · parrty · partty · partyy · paryt · patry · pparty · praty
  • portsoprts · porrts · porst · portss · portts · potrs · pports · prots

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "party" and "ports" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɑː.ti/ versus /pɔɹts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "party" or "ports"?
"party" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #308 in our English list, against #6,396 for "ports". 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