praisesvspromisesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,813
“praises” frequency rank
#4,701
“promises” frequency rank
19514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature praises promises
Definition plural of praise plural of promise

Where the eye mixes praises and promises

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. praises runs 7 letters (CCVVCVC) against promises's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
praises
8 ch
promises

Visual trap between praises and promises

A purely visual mix-up. praises (/ˈpɹeɪzɪz/) and promises (/ˈpɹɑmɪsɪz/) 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 19514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

praises is recorded at frequency rank #14,813, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹeɪzɪz/. promises is at rank #4,701, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɑmɪsɪz/.

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 19514, this pair ranks #437,626 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of praises vs promises

Shared letters: eiprs. Private to "praises": a. Private to "promises": mo.

"praises" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC  ·  "promises" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • praises ← parises · ppraises · praiess · praisess · praisses · prasies · priases · prraises
  • promises ← pormises · ppromises · prmoises · proimses · promiess · promisess · promisses · prommises

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "praises" and "promises" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɹeɪzɪz/ versus /ˈpɹɑmɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "praises" vs "promises" - which ranks higher?
"promises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,701 in our English list, against #14,813 for "praises". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "praises" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "promises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #437,626 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "praises" and "promises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Prairies vs praises". 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 #437,626 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list