Which to use
“press” and “presses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #719
- “press” frequency rank
- #14,616
- “presses” frequency rank
- 15335
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | press | presses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An instance of applying pressure; an instance of pressing. | plural of press |
Where the eye mixes press and presses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. press runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against presses's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: press vs presses
A purely visual mix-up. press (/pɹɛs/) and presses (/ˈpɹɛsɪz/) 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 extra letter(s) - “press” sits inside “presses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15335, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
press is recorded at frequency rank #719, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɹɛs/. presses is at rank #14,616, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɛsɪz/.
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 15335, this pair ranks #464,611 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of press vs presses
Shared letters: eprs. Private to "press": -. Private to "presses": -.
"press" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "presses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "press" and "presses" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "press" or "presses" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "press" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "presses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #464,611 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "press" and "presses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "presses vs Prosser". 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 #464,611 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.