Which to use
“regain” is a verb and “remains” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,751
- “regain” frequency rank
- #1,672
- “remains” frequency rank
- 12423
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | regain | remains |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To get back; to recover possession of. | The body or any of its matter that are left after a person (or any organism) dies; a corpse. |
Where the eye mixes regain and remains
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between regain and remains
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: regain is /ɹiːˈɡeɪn/ while remains is /ɹɪˈmeɪnz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
regain is recorded at frequency rank #10,751, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹiːˈɡeɪn/. remains is at rank #1,672, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪˈmeɪnz/.
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 12423, this pair ranks #481,656 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of regain vs remains
Shared letters: aeinr. Private to "regain": g. Private to "remains": ms.
"regain" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "remains" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "regain" and "remains" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "regain" or "remains"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "regain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "remains" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #481,656 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "regain" and "remains" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regain vs repaint". 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 #481,656 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.