pissed vs pisses, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“pissed” is a verb and “pisses” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,697
“pissed” frequency rank: #15,476
“pisses” frequency rank: 20173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pissed	pisses
Definition	simple past and past participle of piss	plural of piss

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pissed and pisses apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

pissed

6 ch

pisses

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pissed is /pɪst/ while pisses is /ˈpɪs.ɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “pissed” becomes s in “pisses”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pissed is recorded at frequency rank #4,697, classified as averb, pronounced /pɪst/. pisses is at rank #15,476, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɪs.ɪz/.

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 20173, this pair ranks #433,010 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pissed vs pisses

Shared letters: eips. Private to "pissed": d. Private to "pisses": -.

"pissed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pisses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

pissed ← ipssed · pised · pisesd · pissde · pissedd · ppissed · psised
pisses ← ipsses · pises · pisess · pissess · pissse · ppisses · psises

Frequency comparison

pissed#4,697

pisses#15,476

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pissed" and "pisses" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pissed" is a verb and "pisses" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "pissed" or "pisses"?

"pissed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,697 in our English list, against #15,476 for "pisses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pissed vs pisses

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “pissed”; for a noun, it's “pisses”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pissed” entry
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