prejudicevsprejudicesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,797
“prejudice” frequency rank
#21,900
“prejudices” frequency rank
31697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prejudice prejudices
Definition An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge of the facts. plural of prejudice

Where the eye mixes prejudice and prejudices

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
prejudice
10 ch
prejudices

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. prejudice (/ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪs/) and prejudices (/ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪsɪz/) 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) - “prejudice” sits inside “prejudices”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prejudice is recorded at frequency rank #9,797, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪs/. prejudices is at rank #21,900, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪsɪz/.

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 31697, this pair ranks #344,004 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prejudice vs prejudices

Shared letters: cdeijpru. Private to "prejudice": -. Private to "prejudices": s.

"prejudice" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCV  ·  "prejudices" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prejudiceperjudice · pprejudice · prejduice · prejjudice · prejudcie · prejuddice · prejudicce · prejudiec
  • prejudicesperjudices · pprejudices · prejduices · prejjudices · prejudcies · prejuddices · prejudicces · prejudicess

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prejudice" and "prejudices" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪs/ versus /ˈpɹɛd͡ʒədɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "prejudice" or "prejudices"?
"prejudice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,797 in our English list, against #21,900 for "prejudices". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list