Which to use
“province” and “provinces” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,190
- “province” frequency rank
- #6,825
- “provinces” frequency rank
- 10015
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | province | provinces |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A region of the earth or of a continent; a district or country. | plural of province |
Where the eye mixes province and provinces
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. province runs 8 letters (CCVCVCCV) against provinces's 9 (CCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between province and provinces
A purely visual mix-up. province (/ˈpɹɑv.ɪns/) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “province” sits inside “provinces”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
province is recorded at frequency rank #3,190, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹɑv.ɪns/. 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 10015, this pair ranks #494,465 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of province vs provinces
Shared letters: ceinoprv. Private to "province": -. Private to "provinces": s.
"province" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV · "provinces" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "province" and "provinces" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "province" vs "provinces" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "province" 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 #494,465 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "province" and "provinces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Provence vs provinces". 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 #494,465 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.