Which to use
“powders” and “power” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,948
- “powders” frequency rank
- #280
- “power” frequency rank
- 24228
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | powders | power |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of powder | The ability to do or undergo something. |
Where the eye mixes powders and power
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. powders runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against power's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: powders vs power
A purely visual mix-up. powders (/ˈpaʊ.dəz/) and power (/ˈpaʊ̯ə̯/) 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 24228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
powders is recorded at frequency rank #23,948, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpaʊ.dəz/. power is at rank #280, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpaʊ̯ə̯/.
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 24228, this pair ranks #403,537 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of powders vs power
Shared letters: eoprw. Private to "powders": ds. Private to "power": -.
"powders" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "power" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "powders" and "power" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "powders" or "power" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "powders" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "power" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #403,537 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "powders" and "power" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poppers vs powders". 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 #403,537 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.