pricesvsprimesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,403
“prices” frequency rank
#33,375
“primes” frequency rank
34778
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prices primes
Definition plural of price plural of prime

Where the eye mixes prices and primes

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

6 ch
prices
6 ch
primes

Visual trap between prices and primes

A purely visual mix-up. prices (/ˈpɹaɪsɪz/) 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 a single letter - c in “prices” becomes m in “primes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34778, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prices is recorded at frequency rank #1,403, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹaɪsɪz/. 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 34778, this pair ranks #317,791 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prices vs primes

Shared letters: eiprs. Private to "prices": c. Private to "primes": m.

"prices" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "primes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pricespirces · pprices · prcies · pricces · pricess · pricse · priecs · prrices
  • primespirmes · pprimes · priems · primess · primmes · primse · prmies · prrimes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prices" and "primes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɹaɪsɪz/ versus /pɹaɪmz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "prices" or "primes" show up more?
"prices" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,403 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "prices" and "primes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prices" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "primes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #317,791 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prices" and "primes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plies vs primes". 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 #317,791 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list