sitesvsSpiresTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,878
“sites” frequency rank
#38,174
“Spires” frequency rank
40052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sites Spires
Definition plural of site A surname.

Letter map: sites vs Spires

Shared letters muted; letters that set sites and Spires apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. sites runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against Spires's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
sites
6 ch
Spires

Grammar separator: sites vs Spires

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sites is anoun and Spiresaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sites is recorded at frequency rank #1,878, classified as anoun, pronounced /saɪts/. Spires is at rank #38,174, 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 40052, this pair ranks #271,114 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sites vs Spires

Shared letters: eis. Private to "sites": t. Private to "Spires": pr.

"sites" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Spires" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sites ← istes · siets · sitess · sitse · sittes · ssites · sties
  • Spires ← psires · sipres · spiers · spiress · spirres · spirse · sppires · spries

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sites" and "Spires" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sites" is a noun and "Spires" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "sites" or "Spires" show up more?
"sites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,878 in our English list, against #38,174 for "Spires". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "sites" and "Spires". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sites" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Spires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,114 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sites" and "Spires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "snipes vs Spires". 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 #271,114 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