tacklesvstalesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,291
“tackles” frequency rank
#6,104
“tales” frequency rank
16395
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tackles tales
Definition plural of tackle plural of tale

Letter map: tackles vs tales

Shared letters muted; letters that set tackles and tales apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. tackles runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against tales's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
tackles
5 ch
tales

Corpus notes: tackles and tales

tackles and tales are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tackles is recorded at frequency rank #10,291, classified as anoun. tales is at rank #6,104, tagged as anoun, pronounced /teɪlz/.

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 16395, this pair ranks #457,994 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tackles vs tales

Shared letters: aelst. Private to "tackles": ck. Private to "tales": -.

"tackles" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "tales" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tackles ← atckles · tacckles · tackels · tackkles · tackless · tacklles · tacklse · taclkes
  • tales ← atles · taels · taless · talles · talse · tlaes · ttales

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tackles" and "tales" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "tackles" or "tales" show up more?
"tales" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,104 in our English list, against #10,291 for "tackles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "tackles" and "tales". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tackles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #457,994 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tackles" and "tales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tackles vs tamales". 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 #457,994 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