sermonvsSermonsConfusable pair

Quick tell: sermon is a noun, Sermons is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sermon” is a noun and “Sermons” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,235
“sermon” frequency rank
#18,426
“Sermons” frequency rank
31661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sermon Sermons
Definition Religious discourse; a written or spoken address on a religious or moral matter. A surname.

Letter map: sermon vs Sermons

Shared letters muted; letters that set sermon and Sermons apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. sermon runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Sermons's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
sermon
7 ch
Sermons

Part-of-speech tell for sermon / Sermons

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sermon is anoun and Sermonsaname. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “sermon” sits inside “Sermons”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sermon is recorded at frequency rank #13,235, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɜː.mən/. Sermons is at rank #18,426, tagged as aname.

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 31661, this pair ranks #344,291 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sermon vs Sermons

Shared letters: emnors. Private to "sermon": -. Private to "Sermons": -.

"sermon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Sermons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sermon ← esrmon · semron · sermmon · sermno · sermonn · seromn · serrmon · sremon
  • Sermons ← esrmons · semrons · sermmons · sermnos · sermonns · sermonss · sermosn · seromns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sermon" for "Sermons" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sermon" is a noun and "Sermons" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "sermon" or "Sermons" show up more?
"sermon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,235 in our English list, against #18,426 for "Sermons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "sermon" vs "Sermons" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sermon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Sermons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #344,291 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sermon" and "Sermons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sermons vs Symons". 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 #344,291 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