ed vs eke, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#1,691
“ed” frequency rank: #45,352
“eke” frequency rank: 47043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ed	eke
Definition	edition	An addition.

Where the eye mixes ed and eke

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

2 ch

3 ch

eke

Visual trap between ed and eke

A purely visual mix-up. ed (/ɛd/) 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 47043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ed is recorded at frequency rank #1,691, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɛd/. 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 47043, this pair ranks #206,094 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ed vs eke

Shared letters: e. Private to "ed": d. Private to "eke": k.

"ed" · 2 letters · shape VC · "eke" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ed" for "eke" ever safe?

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

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

"ed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,691 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.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "ed" 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 #206,094 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ed" and "eke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eke vs Eri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #206,094 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.