profitsvsprophetsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,900
“profits” frequency rank
#14,193
“prophets” frequency rank
18093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature profits prophets
Definition plural of profit plural of prophet

Same sound, different letters: profits vs prophets

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. profits runs 7 letters (CCVCVCC) against prophets's 8 (CCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
profits
8 ch
prophets

Homophone desk: profits vs prophets

This is the hard kind. profits and prophets are pronounced identically (/ˈpɹɑfɪts/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

profits is recorded at frequency rank #3,900, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɑfɪts/. prophets is at rank #14,193, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɑfɪts/.

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 18093, this pair ranks #447,151 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of profits vs prophets

Shared letters: oprst. Private to "profits": fi. Private to "prophets": eh.

"profits" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "prophets" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • profits ← porfits · pprofits · prfoits · proffits · profist · profitss · profitts · proftis
  • prophets ← porphets · pprophets · prohpets · propehts · prophest · prophetss · prophetts · prophhets

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "profits" and "prophets" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (/ˈpɹɑfɪts/), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "profits" or "prophets"?
"profits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,900 in our English list, against #14,193 for "prophets". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "profits" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prophets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #447,151 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "profits" and "prophets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prophesy vs prophets". 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 #447,151 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