Which to use
“tendon” is a noun and “tends” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,483
- “tendon” frequency rank
- #5,922
- “tends” frequency rank
- 25405
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tendon | tends |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tough band of flexible but inelastic fibrous collagen tissue that connects a muscle with its bony attachment and transmits the force which the muscle exerts. | third-person singular simple present indicative of tend |
Where the eye mixes tendon and tends
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tendon runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against tends's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between tendon and tends
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tendon is /ˈtɛn.dən/ while tends is /tɛndz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tendon is recorded at frequency rank #19,483, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɛn.dən/. tends is at rank #5,922, tagged as averb, pronounced /tɛndz/.
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 25405, this pair ranks #394,515 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tendon vs tends
Shared letters: dent. Private to "tendon": o. Private to "tends": s.
"tendon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "tends" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tendon" and "tends" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "tendon" or "tends" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tendon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tends" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #394,515 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tendon" and "tends" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tendon vs Teton". 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 #394,515 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.