eavsExWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ea is a unknown, Ex is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ea” is an unknown and “Ex” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,458
“ea” frequency rank
#1,321
“Ex” frequency rank
11779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ea Ex
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum des Pronomens is Kurzform für Exfreund oder Exmann

Letter map: ea vs Ex

Shared letters muted; letters that set ea and Ex apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ea
2 ch
Ex

Part-of-speech tell for ea / Ex

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ea is anunknown and Exanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “ea” becomes x in “Ex”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ea is recorded at frequency rank #10,458, classified as anunknown, pronounced […]. Ex is at rank #1,321, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɛks].

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 11779, this pair ranks #1,967,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ea vs Ex

Shared letters: e. Private to "ea": a. Private to "Ex": x.

"ea" · 2 letters · shape VV  ·  "Ex" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ea" and "Ex" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ea" is an unknown and "Ex" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ea" or "Ex" show up more?
"Ex" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,321 in our German list, against #10,458 for "ea". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ea" and "Ex".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ex" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,967,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ea" and "Ex" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ea vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,967,944 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list