placesvsplantsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#998
“places” frequency rank
#2,007
“plants” frequency rank
3005
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature places plants
Definition plural of place plural of plant

Where the eye mixes places and plants

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

6 ch
places
6 ch
plants

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. places (/ˈpleɪsɪz/) and plants (/plɑːnts/) 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 3005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

places is recorded at frequency rank #998, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpleɪsɪz/. plants is at rank #2,007, tagged as anoun, pronounced /plɑːnts/.

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 3005, this pair ranks #523,397 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of places vs plants

Shared letters: alps. Private to "places": ce. Private to "plants": nt.

"places" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "plants" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • placeslpaces · palces · placces · placess · placse · plaecs · plcaes · pllaces
  • plantslpants · palnts · plannts · planst · plantss · plantts · platns · pllants

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "places" and "plants" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpleɪsɪz/ versus /plɑːnts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "places" or "plants"?
"places" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #998 in our English list, against #2,007 for "plants". 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