princesvsprovincesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,443
“princes” frequency rank
#6,825
“provinces” frequency rank
18268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature princes provinces
Definition plural of prince plural of province

Where the eye mixes princes and provinces

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. princes runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against provinces's 9 (CCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
princes
9 ch
provinces

Look-alike desk: princes vs provinces

A purely visual mix-up. princes (/ˈpɹɪnsɪz/) and provinces (/ˈpɹɑvɪnsɪz/) 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 18268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

princes is recorded at frequency rank #11,443, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɪnsɪz/. provinces is at rank #6,825, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɑvɪnsɪz/.

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 18268, this pair ranks #446,014 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of princes vs provinces

Shared letters: ceinprs. Private to "princes": -. Private to "provinces": ov.

"princes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "provinces" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • princes ← pirnces · pprinces · pricnes · princces · princse · prinecs · prinnces · prnices
  • provinces ← porvinces · pprovinces · proivnces · provicnes · provincces · provincess · provincse · provinecs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "princes" and "provinces" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɹɪnsɪz/ versus /ˈpɹɑvɪnsɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "princes" vs "provinces" - which ranks higher?
"provinces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,825 in our English list, against #11,443 for "princes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "princes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provinces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #446,014 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "princes" and "provinces" 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 #446,014 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