pricevspricesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#592
“price” frequency rank
#1,403
“prices” frequency rank
1995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature price prices
Definition The cost required to gain possession of something. plural of price

Where the eye mixes price and prices

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
price
6 ch
prices

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. price (/pɹaɪs/) and prices (/ˈpɹaɪsɪz/) 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) - “price” sits inside “prices”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

price is recorded at frequency rank #592, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɹaɪs/. prices is at rank #1,403, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹaɪsɪz/.

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 1995, this pair ranks #526,100 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of price vs prices

Shared letters: ceipr. Private to "price": -. Private to "prices": s.

"price" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "prices" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pricepirce · pprice · prcie · pricce · priec · prrice · rpice
  • pricespirces · pprices · prcies · pricces · pricess · pricse · priecs · prrices

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "price" and "prices" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɹaɪs/ versus /ˈpɹaɪsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "price" or "prices"?
"price" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #592 in our English list, against #1,403 for "prices". 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