Which to use
“remain” and “remains” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,574
- “remain” frequency rank
- #1,672
- “remains” frequency rank
- 3246
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | remain | remains |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | That which is left; relic; remainder. | The body or any of its matter that are left after a person (or any organism) dies; a corpse. |
Where the eye mixes remain and remains
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. remain (/ɹɪˈmeɪn/) and remains (/ɹɪˈmeɪnz/) 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) - “remain” sits inside “remains”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
remain is recorded at frequency rank #1,574, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹɪˈmeɪn/. 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 3246, this pair ranks #522,680 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of remain vs remains
Shared letters: aeimnr. Private to "remain": -. Private to "remains": s.
"remain" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "remains" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC