priceyvsprincesConfusable pair

Quick tell: pricey is a adjective, princes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pricey” is an adjective and “princes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,660
“pricey” frequency rank
#11,443
“princes” frequency rank
30103
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pricey princes
Definition Expensive, dear. plural of prince

Where the eye mixes pricey and princes

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

6 ch
pricey
7 ch
princes

Look-alike desk: pricey vs princes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pricey is /ˈpɹaɪsi/ while princes is /ˈpɹɪnsɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30103, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pricey is recorded at frequency rank #18,660, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpɹaɪsi/. princes is at rank #11,443, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɪnsɪz/.

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 30103, this pair ranks #357,336 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pricey vs princes

Shared letters: ceipr. Private to "pricey": y. Private to "princes": ns.

"pricey" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV  ·  "princes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • priceypircey · ppricey · prciey · priccey · priceyy · pricye · priecy · prricey
  • princespirnces · pprinces · pricnes · princces · princse · prinecs · prinnces · prnices

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pricey" for "princes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pricey" is an adjective and "princes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pricey" vs "princes" - which ranks higher?
"princes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,443 in our English list, against #18,660 for "pricey". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pricey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "princes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,336 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pricey" and "princes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "princes vs prunes". 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 #357,336 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