ease vs eke, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#4,015
“ease” frequency rank: #45,352
“eke” frequency rank: 49367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ease	eke
Definition	Lack of difficulty; the ability to do something easily.	An addition.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ease and eke apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

ease

3 ch

eke

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. ease (/iːz/) 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 49367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ease is recorded at frequency rank #4,015, classified as anoun, pronounced /iːz/. 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 49367, this pair ranks #184,310 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ease vs eke

Shared letters: e. Private to "ease": as. Private to "eke": k.

"ease" · 4 letters · shape VVCV · "eke" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

ease ← aese · eaes · easse · esae

Frequency comparison

ease#4,015

eke#45,352

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ease" and "eke" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/iːz/ versus /iːk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "ease" or "eke"?

"ease" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,015 in our English list, against #45,352 for "eke". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering ease vs eke

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ease” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable