progressvsprogressesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,734
“progress” frequency rank
#16,568
“progresses” frequency rank
18302
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature progress progresses
Definition Movement or advancement through a series of events, or points in time; development through time. plural of progress

Letter map: progress vs progresses

Shared letters muted; letters that set progress and progresses apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.

8 ch
progress
10 ch
progresses

Pair insight - progress / progresses

progress and progresses are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “progress” sits inside “progresses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18302, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

progress is recorded at frequency rank #1,734, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹəʊ.ɡɹɛs/. progresses is at rank #16,568, tagged as anoun.

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 18302, this pair ranks #445,799 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of progress vs progresses

Shared letters: egoprs. Private to "progress": -. Private to "progresses": -.

"progress" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "progresses" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • progressporgress · pprogress · prgoress · progerss · proggress · progres · progrress · progrses
  • progressesporgresses · pprogresses · prgoresses · progersses · proggresses · progreses · progresess · progressess

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "progress" and "progresses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “progress” sits inside “progresses”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "progress" or "progresses" show up more?
"progress" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,734 in our English list, against #16,568 for "progresses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "progress" vs "progresses" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "progress" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "progresses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #445,799 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "progress" and "progresses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "profess vs progress". 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 #445,799 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