stripvsstripsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,911
“strip” frequency rank
#8,861
“strips” frequency rank
12772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature strip strips
Definition A long, thin piece of land; any long, thin area. plural of strip

Where the eye mixes strip and strips

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

5 ch
strip
6 ch
strips

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. strip (/stɹɪp/) and strips (/stɹɪps/) 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) - “strip” sits inside “strips”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

strip is recorded at frequency rank #3,911, classified as anoun, pronounced /stɹɪp/. strips is at rank #8,861, tagged as anoun, pronounced /stɹɪps/.

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 12772, this pair ranks #479,656 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of strip vs strips

Shared letters: iprst. Private to "strip": -. Private to "strips": -.

"strip" · 5 letters · shape CCCVC  ·  "strips" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stripsrtip · sstrip · stirp · stripp · strpi · strrip · sttrip · tsrip
  • stripssrtips · sstrips · stirps · stripps · stripss · strisp · strpis · strrips

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "strip" and "strips" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/stɹɪp/ versus /stɹɪps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "strip" or "strips"?
"strip" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,911 in our English list, against #8,861 for "strips". 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 "strip" and "strips". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "strip" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "strips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #479,656 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "strip" and "strips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scrip vs strips". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list