Which to use
“reason” and “reasons” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #479
- “reason” frequency rank
- #1,252
- “reasons” frequency rank
- 1731
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | reason | reasons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A cause: | plural of reason |
Where the eye mixes reason and reasons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. reason (/ˈɹiː.zən/) and reasons (/ˈɹiː.zənz/) 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) - “reason” sits inside “reasons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
reason is recorded at frequency rank #479, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹiː.zən/. reasons is at rank #1,252, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹiː.zənz/.
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 1731, this pair ranks #526,783 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of reason vs reasons
Shared letters: aenors. Private to "reason": -. Private to "reasons": -.
"reason" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "reasons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC