Which to use
“source” and “sources” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #743
- “source” frequency rank
- #1,539
- “sources” frequency rank
- 2282
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | source | sources |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The person, place, or thing from which something (information, goods, etc.) comes or is acquired. | plural of source |
Where the eye mixes source and sources
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: source vs sources
A purely visual mix-up. source (/sɔːs/) and sources (/ˈsɔːsɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “source” sits inside “sources”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2282, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
source is recorded at frequency rank #743, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɔːs/. sources is at rank #1,539, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɔːsɪz/.
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 2282, this pair ranks #525,377 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of source vs sources
Shared letters: ceorsu. Private to "source": -. Private to "sources": -.
"source" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "sources" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "source" and "sources" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "source" or "sources"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "source" and "sources" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "source" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sources" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #525,377 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "source" and "sources" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sluice vs source". 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 #525,377 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.