Which to use
“eater” and “eatery” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,697
- “eater” frequency rank
- #37,900
- “eatery” frequency rank
- 54597
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | eater | eatery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person or animal who eats. | A restaurant or café; a place to purchase and eat food. |
Where the eye mixes eater and eatery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses eater with eatery
A purely visual mix-up. eater (/ˈiː.tɚ/) and eatery (/ˈiːtəɹi/) 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 extra letter(s) - “eater” sits inside “eatery”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
eater is recorded at frequency rank #16,697, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈiː.tɚ/. eatery is at rank #37,900, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈiːtəɹi/.
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 54597, this pair ranks #139,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of eater vs eatery
Shared letters: aert. Private to "eater": -. Private to "eatery": y.
"eater" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC · "eatery" · 6 letters · shape VVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "eater" and "eatery" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "eater" vs "eatery" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "eater" and "eatery" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "eater" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "eatery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "eater" and "eatery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "easterly vs eatery". 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 #139,833 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.