Which to use
“spade” and “span” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,960
- “spade” frequency rank
- #6,416
- “span” frequency rank
- 25376
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spade | span |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials. | The full width of an open hand from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger used as an informal unit of length. |
Where the eye mixes spade and span
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: spade vs span
A purely visual mix-up. spade (/speɪ̯d/) and span (/spæn/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spade is recorded at frequency rank #18,960, classified as anoun, pronounced /speɪ̯d/. span is at rank #6,416, tagged as anoun, pronounced /spæn/.
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 25376, this pair ranks #394,757 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of spade vs span
Shared letters: aps. Private to "spade": de. Private to "span": n.
"spade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "span" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "spade" and "span" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "spade" or "span" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "spade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "span" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #394,757 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spade" and "span" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sate vs spade". 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 #394,757 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.