peelsvspesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#37,150
“peels” frequency rank
#28,668
“pes” frequency rank
65818
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peels pes
Definition plural of peel the foot of a human

Where the eye mixes peels and pes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peels runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against pes's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
peels
3 ch
pes

Look-alike desk: peels vs pes

A purely visual mix-up. peels (/piːlz/) and pes (/peɪ̯s/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65818, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peels is recorded at frequency rank #37,150, classified as anoun, pronounced /piːlz/. pes is at rank #28,668, tagged as anoun, pronounced /peɪ̯s/.

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 65818, this pair ranks #70,931 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peels vs pes

Shared letters: eps. Private to "peels": l. Private to "pes": -.

"peels" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peels ← epels · peells · peelss · peesl · peles · pels · ppeels

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "peels" and "pes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/piːlz/ versus /peɪ̯s/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "peels" or "pes" show up more?
"pes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,668 in our English list, against #37,150 for "peels". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "peels" and "pes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peels" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,931 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peels" and "pes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Peebles vs peels". 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 #70,931 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list