Which to use
“places” and “plumes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #998
- “places” frequency rank
- #32,125
- “plumes” frequency rank
- 33123
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | places | plumes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of place | plural of plume |
Where the eye mixes places and plumes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. places and plumes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: places vs plumes
A purely visual mix-up. places (/ˈpleɪsɪz/) and plumes (/pluːmz/) 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 33123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
places is recorded at frequency rank #998, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpleɪsɪz/. plumes is at rank #32,125, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pluːmz/.
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 33123, this pair ranks #332,083 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of places vs plumes
Shared letters: elps. Private to "places": ac. Private to "plumes": mu.
"places" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "plumes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "places" and "plumes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "places" or "plumes" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "places" and "plumes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "places" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "plumes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #332,083 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "places" and "plumes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plies vs plumes". 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 #332,083 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.