votervsvotesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,016
“voter” frequency rank
#2,324
“votes” frequency rank
8340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voter votes
Definition Someone who votes. plural of vote

Where the eye mixes voter and votes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. voter and votes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
voter
5 ch
votes

Look-alike desk: voter vs votes

A purely visual mix-up. voter (/ˈvəʊtə(ɹ)/) and votes (/vəʊts/) 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 a single letter - r in “voter” becomes s in “votes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

voter is recorded at frequency rank #6,016, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈvəʊtə(ɹ)/. votes is at rank #2,324, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vəʊts/.

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 8340, this pair ranks #502,994 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of voter vs votes

Shared letters: eotv. Private to "voter": r. Private to "votes": s.

"voter" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "votes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voter ← ovter · voetr · voterr · votre · votter · vtoer · vvoter
  • votes ← ovtes · voets · votess · votse · vottes · vtoes · vvotes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "voter" and "votes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈvəʊtə(ɹ)/ versus /vəʊts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "voter" vs "votes" - which ranks higher?
"votes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,324 in our English list, against #6,016 for "voter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "voter" and "votes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "voter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "votes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #502,994 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "voter" and "votes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vole vs voter". 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 #502,994 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