stridesvsstriveWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: strides is a noun, strive is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,477
“strides” frequency rank
#10,942
“strive” frequency rank
30419
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature strides strive
Definition Trousers. To try to achieve a result; to make strenuous effort; to try earnestly and persistently.

Letter map: strides vs strive

Shared letters muted; letters that set strides and strive apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
strides
6 ch
strive

Part-of-speech tell for strides / strive

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: strides is anoun and striveaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30419, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

strides is recorded at frequency rank #19,477, classified as anoun. strive is at rank #10,942, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈstɹaɪv/.

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 30419, this pair ranks #354,715 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of strides vs strive

Shared letters: eirst. Private to "strides": d. Private to "strive": v.

"strides" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCVC  ·  "strive" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stridessrtides · sstrides · stirdes · strdies · striddes · stridess · stridse · strieds
  • strivesrtive · sstrive · stirve · striev · strivve · strrive · strvie · sttrive

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "strides" for "strive" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "strides" is a noun and "strive" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "strides" vs "strive" - which ranks higher?
"strive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,942 in our English list, against #19,477 for "strides". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "strides" and "strive". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "strides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "strive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,715 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "strides" and "strive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "strident vs strides". 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 #354,715 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