Which to use
“skates” is a noun and “Slates” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,972
- “skates” frequency rank
- #46,781
- “Slates” frequency rank
- 66753
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | skates | Slates |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of skate | A surname. |
Letter map: skates vs Slates
Shared letters muted; letters that set skates and Slates apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for skates / Slates
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: skates is anoun and Slatesaname. On the page they differ by a single letter - k in “skates” becomes l in “Slates”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66753, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
skates is recorded at frequency rank #19,972, classified as anoun, pronounced /skeɪts/. Slates is at rank #46,781, 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 66753, this pair ranks #66,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of skates vs Slates
Shared letters: aest. Private to "skates": k. Private to "Slates": l.
"skates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "Slates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "skates" for "Slates" ever safe?
Which is more common, "skates" or "Slates"?
After this comparison
You've compared "skates" and "Slates". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "skates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Slates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #66,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "skates" and "Slates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sate vs Slates". 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 #66,553 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.