pricevsprimesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#592
“price” frequency rank
#33,375
“primes” frequency rank
33967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set price and primes apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
price
6 ch
primes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. price (/pɹaɪs/) and primes (/pɹaɪmz/) 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 33967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

price is recorded at frequency rank #592, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɹaɪs/. primes is at rank #33,375, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɹaɪmz/.

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 33967, this pair ranks #324,826 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of price vs primes

Shared letters: eipr. Private to "price": c. Private to "primes": ms.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pricepirce · pprice · prcie · pricce · priec · prrice · rpice
  • primespirmes · pprimes · priems · primess · primmes · primse · prmies · prrimes

Frequency comparison

price#592
primes#33,375

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "price" and "primes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pɹaɪs/ versus /pɹaɪmz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "price" or "primes"?
"price" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #592 in our English list, against #33,375 for "primes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering price vs primes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “price” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list