Which to use
“plumb” and “plumes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,124
- “plumb” frequency rank
- #32,125
- “plumes” frequency rank
- 64249
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | plumb | plumes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A little mass of lead, or the like, attached to a line, and used by builders, etc., to indicate a vertical direction. | plural of plume |
Where the eye mixes plumb and plumes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. plumb runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against plumes's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between plumb and plumes
A purely visual mix-up. plumb (/plʌm/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
plumb is recorded at frequency rank #32,124, classified as anoun, pronounced /plʌm/. 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 64249, this pair ranks #78,724 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of plumb vs plumes
Shared letters: lmpu. Private to "plumb": b. Private to "plumes": es.
"plumb" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "plumes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "plumb" and "plumes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "plumb" vs "plumes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "plumb" and "plumes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "plumb" 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 #78,724 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "plumb" 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 #78,724 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.