eightvseightyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,016
“eight” frequency rank
#10,356
“eighty” frequency rank
11372
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eight eighty
Definition A numerical value equal to 8; the number occurring after seven and before nine. The cardinal number occurring after seventy-nine and before eighty-one, represented in Roman numerals as LXXX and in Arabic numerals as 80.

Where the eye mixes eight and eighty

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
eight
6 ch
eighty

Look-alike desk: eight vs eighty

A purely visual mix-up. eight (/eɪt/) and eighty (/ˈeɪ.ti/) 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) - “eight” sits inside “eighty”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eight is recorded at frequency rank #1,016, classified as anum, pronounced /eɪt/. eighty is at rank #10,356, tagged as anum, pronounced /ˈeɪ.ti/.

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 11372, this pair ranks #487,420 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of eight vs eighty

Shared letters: eghit. Private to "eight": -. Private to "eighty": y.

"eight" · 5 letters · shape VVCCC  ·  "eighty" · 6 letters · shape VVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eightegiht · eigght · eighht · eightt · eigth · eihgt · ieght
  • eightyegihty · eigghty · eighhty · eightty · eightyy · eighyt · eigthy · eihgty

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "eight" and "eighty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/eɪt/ versus /ˈeɪ.ti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "eight" or "eighty" show up more?
"eight" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,016 in our English list, against #10,356 for "eighty". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "eight" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eighty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #487,420 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eight" and "eighty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eight vs Enright". 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 #487,420 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