SwimsvsswipesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Swims is a name, swipes is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Swims” is a name and “swipes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,748
“Swims” frequency rank
#43,948
“swipes” frequency rank
72696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Swims swipes
Definition A surname. third-person singular simple present indicative of swipe

Letter map: Swims vs swipes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Swims and swipes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Swims runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against swipes's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Swims
6 ch
swipes

Role in the sentence - Swims and swipes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Swims is aname and swipesaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Swims is recorded at frequency rank #28,748, classified as aname. swipes is at rank #43,948, tagged as averb, pronounced /swaɪps/.

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 72696, this pair ranks #42,189 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Swims vs swipes

Shared letters: isw. Private to "Swims": m. Private to "swipes": ep.

"Swims" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "swipes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Swimssiwms · sswims · swimms · swimss · swism · swmis · swwims · wsims
  • swipessiwpes · sswipes · swieps · swipess · swippes · swipse · swpies · swwipes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Swims" for "swipes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Swims" is a name and "swipes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Swims" or "swipes" show up more?
"Swims" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,748 in our English list, against #43,948 for "swipes". 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 "Swims" and "swipes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Swims" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "swipes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,189 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Swims" and "swipes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "snipes vs swipes". 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 #42,189 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