# slave vs slavery

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### slave
*noun · IPA /sleɪv/ · frequency rank #4,270*
A person who is held in servitude as the property of another person, and whose labor (and often also whose body and life) is subject to the owner's volition and control.

### slavery
*noun · IPA /ˈsleɪvəɹi/ · frequency rank #5,083*
An institution or social practice of owning human beings as property, especially for use as forced laborers.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/slave-vs-slavery