Which to use
“prayer” and “prayers” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,520
- “prayer” frequency rank
- #5,900
- “prayers” frequency rank
- 9420
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | prayer | prayers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A practice of communicating with one's God, or with some spiritual entity. | plural of prayer |
Where the eye mixes prayer and prayers
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between prayer and prayers
A purely visual mix-up. prayer (/pɹɛə/) and prayers (/pɹɛɹz/) 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 extra letter(s) - “prayer” sits inside “prayers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9420, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
prayer is recorded at frequency rank #3,520, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɹɛə/. prayers is at rank #5,900, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɹɛɹz/.
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 9420, this pair ranks #497,481 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of prayer vs prayers
Shared letters: aepry. Private to "prayer": -. Private to "prayers": s.
"prayer" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC · "prayers" · 7 letters · shape CCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "prayer" and "prayers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "prayer" or "prayers"?
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 "prayer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prayers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #497,481 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "prayer" and "prayers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pager vs prayer". 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 #497,481 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.