teamsvsThamesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: teams is a noun, Thames is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“teams” is a noun and “Thames” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,155
“teams” frequency rank
#10,780
“Thames” frequency rank
11935
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature teams Thames
Definition plural of team A river in southern England, flowing 336 km (209 mi.) from Gloucestershire, through Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Greater London, and between Essex and Kent to the Thames Estuary and North Sea.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set teams and Thames apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
teams
6 ch
Thames

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

teams and Thames form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11935, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

teams is recorded at frequency rank #1,155, classified as anoun, pronounced /tiːmz/. Thames is at rank #10,780, tagged as aname, pronounced /tɛmz/.

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 11935, this pair ranks #484,330 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Frequency comparison

teams#1,155
Thames#10,780

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "teams" and "Thames" be used interchangeably?
No, "teams" and "Thames" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering teams vs Thames

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “teams”; for a name, it's “Thames”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “teams” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list