Which to use
“serve” and “service” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,502
- “serve” frequency rank
- #311
- “service” frequency rank
- 1813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | serve | service |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An act of putting the ball or shuttlecock in play in various games. | An act of being of assistance to someone. |
Where the eye mixes serve and service
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. serve (/sɜːv/) and service (/ˈsɜː.vɪs/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
serve is recorded at frequency rank #1,502, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɜːv/. service is at rank #311, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɜː.vɪs/.
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 1813, this pair ranks #526,592 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of serve vs service
Shared letters: ersv. Private to "serve": -. Private to "service": ci.
"serve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "service" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV