ghostvsghostsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ghost” and “ghosts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,636
“ghost” frequency rank
#45,636
“ghosts” frequency rank
61272
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ghost ghosts
Definition Clone de données, effectué à l'aide du célèbre logiciel Ghost. Pluriel de ghost.

Same sound, different letters: ghost vs ghosts

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
ghost
6 ch
ghosts

Ear matches; page differs - ghost and ghosts

This is the hard kind. ghost and ghosts are pronounced identically (\ɡɔst\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ghost” sits inside “ghosts”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61272, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ghost is recorded at frequency rank #15,636, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔst\. ghosts is at rank #45,636, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡɔst\.

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 61272, this pair ranks #93,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ghost vs ghosts

Shared letters: ghost. Private to "ghost": -. Private to "ghosts": -.

"ghost" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "ghosts" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ghostgghost · ghhost · ghosst · ghostt · ghots · ghsot · gohst · hgost
  • ghostsgghosts · ghhosts · ghossts · ghostss · ghostts · ghotss · ghsots · gohsts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ghost" and "ghosts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɡɔst\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "ghost" vs "ghosts" - which ranks higher?
"ghost" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,636 in our French list, against #45,636 for "ghosts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ghost" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ghosts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ghost" and "ghosts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ghosts vs gloss". 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 #93,142 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list