singervssingleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: singer is a noun, single is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“singer” is a noun and “single” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,565
“singer” frequency rank
#10,761
“single” frequency rank
39326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature singer single
Definition Cantante. Dícese de cualquier cabo que laborea sencillo, como la braza, el amantillo, etc. cuando uno de sus chicotes está hecho firme en el peñol de la verga.

Where the eye mixes singer and single

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
singer
6 ch
single

Look-alike desk: singer vs single

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: singer is /ˈsɪŋ.ə/ while single is [ˈsĩŋgle]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

singer is recorded at frequency rank #28,565, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɪŋ.ə/. single is at rank #10,761, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈsĩŋgle].

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 39326, this pair ranks #165,142 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of singer vs single

Shared letters: egins. Private to "singer": r. Private to "single": l.

"singer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "single" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • singercinger · isnger · signer · sinegr · singerr · singger · singre · sinnger
  • singlecingle · isngle · signle · singel · singgle · singlle · sinlge · sinngle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "singer" for "single" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "singer" is a noun and "single" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "singer" or "single"?
"single" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,761 in our Spanish list, against #28,565 for "singer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "singer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "single" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,142 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "singer" and "single" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sine vs singer". 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 #165,142 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list