Which to use
“Philip” and “Phillips” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,530
- “Philip” frequency rank
- #19,102
- “Phillips” frequency rank
- 28632
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Philip | Phillips |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de famille. | Nom de famille. |
Letter map: Philip vs Phillips
Shared letters muted; letters that set Philip and Phillips apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. Philip runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against Phillips's 8 (CCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - Philip / Phillips
Philip and Phillips are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28632, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Philip is recorded at frequency rank #9,530, classified as aname. Phillips is at rank #19,102, tagged as aname, pronounced \fi.lips\.
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 28632, this pair ranks #321,622 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Philip vs Phillips
Shared letters: hilp. Private to "Philip": -. Private to "Phillips": s.
"Philip" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "Phillips" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Philip" for "Phillips" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Philip" vs "Phillips" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "Philip" vs "Phillips" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "Philip" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Phillips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,622 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Philip" and "Phillips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Philipe vs Phillips". 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 #321,622 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.