Which to use
“Slates” is a name and “spades” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,781
- “Slates” frequency rank
- #24,318
- “spades” frequency rank
- 71099
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Slates | spades |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname. | plural of spade |
Letter map: Slates vs spades
Shared letters muted; letters that set Slates and spades apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Slates and spades follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: Slates vs spades
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Slates is aname and spadesanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71099, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Slates is recorded at frequency rank #46,781, classified as aname. spades is at rank #24,318, tagged as anoun, pronounced /speɪdz/.
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 71099, this pair ranks #47,991 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Slates vs spades
Shared letters: aes. Private to "Slates": lt. Private to "spades": dp.
"Slates" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "spades" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Slates" and "spades" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "Slates" or "spades" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "Slates" and "spades". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "Slates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spades" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #47,991 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Slates" and "spades" 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 #47,991 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.