Which to use
“gland” and “glands” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,145
- “gland” frequency rank
- #30,628
- “glands” frequency rank
- 47773
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gland | glands |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fruit du chêne, akène logé dans une cupule. | Pluriel de gland. |
Same sound, different letters: gland vs glands
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. gland runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against glands's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - gland / glands
This is the hard kind. gland and glands are pronounced identically (\ɡlɑ̃\) 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) - “gland” sits inside “glands”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gland is recorded at frequency rank #17,145, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡlɑ̃\. glands is at rank #30,628, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡlɑ̃\.
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 47773, this pair ranks #184,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gland vs glands
Shared letters: adgln. Private to "gland": -. Private to "glands": s.
"gland" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "glands" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gland" and "glands" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "gland" or "glands"?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "gland" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "glands" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #184,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gland" and "glands" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glands vs glane". 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 #184,261 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.