Which to use
“althea” is a noun and “altho” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,181
- “althea” frequency rank
- #44,055
- “altho” frequency rank
- 93236
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | althea | altho |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of several plants of the genus Althaea; the hollyhocks and mallows, native to Eurasia. | Alternative spelling of although. |
Letter map: althea vs altho
Shared letters muted; letters that set althea and altho apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. althea runs 6 letters (VCCCVV) against altho's 5 (VCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - althea and altho
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: althea is anoun and althoaconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
althea is recorded at frequency rank #49,181, classified as anoun. altho is at rank #44,055, tagged as aconj.
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 93236, this pair ranks #2,061 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of althea vs altho
Shared letters: ahlt. Private to "althea": e. Private to "altho": o.
"althea" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV · "altho" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "althea" for "altho" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "althea" or "altho" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "althea" and "altho". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "althea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "altho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,061 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "althea" and "altho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "algo vs altho". 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 #2,061 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.