pridesvsprovidesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,800
“prides” frequency rank
#1,671
“provides” frequency rank
35471
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prides provides
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of pride third-person singular simple present indicative of provide

Where the eye mixes prides and provides

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
prides
8 ch
provides

Why the eye confuses prides with provides

A purely visual mix-up. prides (/pɹaɪdz/) and provides (/pɹəˈvaɪdz/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prides is recorded at frequency rank #33,800, classified as averb, pronounced /pɹaɪdz/. provides is at rank #1,671, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɹəˈvaɪdz/.

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 35471, this pair ranks #311,635 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prides vs provides

Shared letters: deiprs. Private to "prides": -. Private to "provides": ov.

"prides" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "provides" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pridespirdes · pprides · prdies · priddes · pridess · pridse · prieds · prrides
  • providesporvides · pprovides · proivdes · provdies · providdes · providess · providse · provieds

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prides" for "provides" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɹaɪdz/ versus /pɹəˈvaɪdz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "prides" or "provides"?
"provides" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,671 in our English list, against #33,800 for "prides". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,635 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prides" and "provides" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prides vs prude". 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 #311,635 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