Which to use
“ear” and “exam” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,425
- “ear” frequency rank
- #4,598
- “exam” frequency rank
- 8023
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ear | exam |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea. | Clipping of examination, especially when meaning “test” or in compound terms. |
Where the eye mixes ear and exam
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between ear and exam
A purely visual mix-up. ear (/ˈɪə̯/) and exam (/ɪɡˈzæm/) 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 8023, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ear is recorded at frequency rank #3,425, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪə̯/. exam is at rank #4,598, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɪɡˈzæm/.
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 8023, this pair ranks #504,458 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ear vs exam
Shared letters: ae. Private to "ear": r. Private to "exam": mx.
"ear" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "exam" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- exam ← eaxm · examm · exma · exxam · xeam
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ear" and "exam" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "ear" or "exam" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #504,458 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ear" and "exam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exam vs exon". 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 #504,458 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.