Which to use
“eke” and “eth” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,352
- “eke” frequency rank
- #22,077
- “eth” frequency rank
- 67429
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | eke | eth |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An addition. | A letter (capital Ð, small ð) introduced into Old English to represent its dental fricative, then not distinguished from the letter thorn, no longer used in English but still in modern use in Icelandic, the IPA and other phonetic alphabets to represent the voiced dental fricative "th" sound as in the English word then. The letter is also used in Faroese, but is generally silent in that language. |
Where the eye mixes eke and eth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses eke with eth
A purely visual mix-up. eke (/iːk/) and eth (/ɛð/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67429, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
eke is recorded at frequency rank #45,352, classified as anoun, pronounced /iːk/. eth is at rank #22,077, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɛð/.
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 67429, this pair ranks #63,390 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of eke vs eth
Shared letters: e. Private to "eke": k. Private to "eth": ht.
"eke" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "eth" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "eke" for "eth" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "eke" or "eth" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "eke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "eth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,390 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "eke" and "eth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eke vs Eri". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #63,390 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.