Which to use
“service” and “services” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #311
- “service” frequency rank
- #494
- “services” frequency rank
- 805
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | service | services |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An act of being of assistance to someone. | That which is produced, then traded, bought or sold, then finally consumed and consists of an action or work. |
Where the eye mixes service and services
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. service (/ˈsɜː.vɪs/) and services (/ˈsɜː.vɪ.sɪz/) 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) - “service” sits inside “services”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
service is recorded at frequency rank #311, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɜː.vɪs/. services is at rank #494, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɜː.vɪ.sɪz/.
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 805, this pair ranks #528,747 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of service vs services
Shared letters: ceirsv. Private to "service": -. Private to "services": -.
"service" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "services" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC