eavsekeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“ea” and “eke” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,461
“ea” frequency rank
#45,352
“eke” frequency rank
54813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ea eke
Definition A river or watercourse. An addition.

Where the eye mixes ea and eke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
ea
3 ch
eke

Look-alike desk: ea vs eke

A purely visual mix-up. ea (/ˈiː(ə)/) and eke (/iːk/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ea is recorded at frequency rank #9,461, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈiː(ə)/. eke is at rank #45,352, tagged as anoun, pronounced /iːk/.

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 54813, this pair ranks #138,285 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ea vs eke

Shared letters: e. Private to "ea": a. Private to "eke": k.

"ea" · 2 letters · shape VV  ·  "eke" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ea" and "eke" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈiː(ə)/ versus /iːk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ea" or "eke"?
"ea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,461 in our English list, against #45,352 for "eke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ea" and "eke" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,285 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ea" and "eke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eke vs Eri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #138,285 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list