storevsstoresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“store” and “stores” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,030
“store” frequency rank
#2,370
“stores” frequency rank
3400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature store stores
Definition A place where items may be accumulated or routinely kept. plural of store

Where the eye mixes store and stores

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
store
6 ch
stores

Visual trap between store and stores

A purely visual mix-up. store (/stɔː/) and stores (/stɔɹz/) 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) - “store” sits inside “stores”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

store is recorded at frequency rank #1,030, classified as anoun, pronounced /stɔː/. stores is at rank #2,370, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stɔɹz/.

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 3400, this pair ranks #522,227 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of store vs stores

Shared letters: eorst. Private to "store": -. Private to "stores": -.

"store" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "stores" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • storesotre · sstore · stoer · storre · stroe · sttore · tsore
  • storessotres · sstores · stoers · storess · storres · storse · stroes · sttores

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "store" and "stores" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/stɔː/ versus /stɔɹz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "store" or "stores"?
"store" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,030 in our English list, against #2,370 for "stores". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "store" and "stores" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "store" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "stores" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #522,227 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "store" and "stores" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stores vs stover". 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 #522,227 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list