earvsezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ear is a noun, ez is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ear” is a noun and “ez” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,425
“ear” frequency rank
#21,206
“ez” frequency rank
24631
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ear ez
Definition The organ of hearing, consisting of the pinna or auricle, auditory canal, eardrum, malleus, incus, stapes and cochlea. Abbreviation of easy.

Letter map: ear vs ez

Shared letters muted; letters that set ear and ez apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ear
2 ch
ez

Grammar separator: ear vs ez

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ear is anoun and ezanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24631, 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/. ez is at rank #21,206, tagged as anadj.

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 24631, this pair ranks #400,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ear vs ez

Shared letters: e. Private to "ear": ar. Private to "ez": z.

"ear" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "ez" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ear" and "ez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ear" is a noun and "ez" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "ear" or "ez" show up more?
"ear" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,425 in our English list, against #21,206 for "ez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ear" and "ez".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #400,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ear" and "ez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Eri vs ez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #400,558 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