snipes vs swipes, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“snipes” is a noun and “swipes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,091
“snipes” frequency rank: #43,948
“swipes” frequency rank: 89039
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	snipes	swipes
Definition	plural of snipe	third-person singular simple present indicative of swipe

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set snipes and swipes apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

snipes

6 ch

swipes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: snipes is /snaɪps/ while swipes is /swaɪps/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “snipes” becomes w in “swipes”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89039, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

snipes is recorded at frequency rank #45,091, classified as anoun, pronounced /snaɪps/. swipes is at rank #43,948, tagged as averb, pronounced /swaɪps/.

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 89039, this pair ranks #5,655 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of snipes vs swipes

Shared letters: eips. Private to "snipes": n. Private to "swipes": w.

"snipes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "swipes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

snipes ← nsipes · sinpes · snieps · snipess · snippes · snipse · snnipes · snpies
swipes ← siwpes · sswipes · swieps · swipess · swippes · swipse · swpies · swwipes

Frequency comparison

snipes#45,091

swipes#43,948

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "snipes" and "swipes" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "snipes" is a noun and "swipes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "snipes" or "swipes"?

"swipes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,948 in our English list, against #45,091 for "snipes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering snipes vs swipes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “snipes”; for a verb, it's “swipes”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “snipes” entry
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