Which to use
“tongue” and “tongues” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,853
- “tongue” frequency rank
- #16,150
- “tongues” frequency rank
- 20003
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tongue | tongues |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The flexible muscular organ in the mouth that is used to move food around, for tasting and that is moved into various positions to modify the flow of air from the lungs in order to produce different sounds in speech. | plural of tongue |
Where the eye mixes tongue and tongues
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tongue runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against tongues's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tongue with tongues
A purely visual mix-up. tongue (/tʌŋ/) and tongues (/tʌŋz/) 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) - “tongue” sits inside “tongues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20003, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tongue is recorded at frequency rank #3,853, classified as anoun, pronounced /tʌŋ/. tongues is at rank #16,150, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tʌŋz/.
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 20003, this pair ranks #434,209 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tongue vs tongues
Shared letters: egnotu. Private to "tongue": -. Private to "tongues": s.
"tongue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "tongues" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tongue" for "tongues" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tongue" vs "tongues" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tongue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tongues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,209 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tongue" and "tongues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tongued vs tongues". 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 #434,209 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.