visitvsvisitsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: visit is a verb, visits is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“visit” is a verb and “visits” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#980
“visit” frequency rank
#4,343
“visits” frequency rank
5323
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature visit visits
Definition To habitually go to (someone in distress, sickness etc.) to comfort them. (Now generally merged into later senses, below.) plural of visit

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set visit and visits apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
visit
6 ch
visits

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

visit and visits 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 extra letter(s) - “visit” sits inside “visits” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

visit is recorded at frequency rank #980, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈvɪzɪt/. visits is at rank #4,343, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvɪzɪts/.

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 5323, this pair ranks #515,789 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Frequency comparison

visit#980
visits#4,343

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "visit" and "visits" be used interchangeably?
No, "visit" and "visits" 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 visit vs visits

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “visit”; for a noun, it's “visits”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “visit” 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