# slavery vs slaves

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### 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.

### slaves
*noun · IPA /sleɪvz/ · frequency rank #5,266*
plural of slave

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