Which to use
“island” and “islands” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,406
- “island” frequency rank
- #44,005
- “islands” frequency rank
- 50411
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | island | islands |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Île. | Pluriel de island. |
Where the eye mixes island and islands
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. island runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against islands's 7 (VCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses island with islands
A purely visual mix-up. island (\ˈaɪ.lənd\) and islands (\ˈaɪ.ləndz\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “island” sits inside “islands”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50411, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
island is recorded at frequency rank #6,406, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈaɪ.lənd\. islands is at rank #44,005, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈaɪ.ləndz\.
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 50411, this pair ranks #162,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of island vs islands
Shared letters: adilns. Private to "island": -. Private to "islands": -.
"island" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "islands" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "island" for "islands" ever safe?
Which is more common, "island" or "islands"?
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 "island" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "islands" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #162,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "island" and "islands" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "islands vs isolants". 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 #162,880 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.