ekevseyeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,352
“eke” frequency rank
#1,018
“eye” frequency rank
46370
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eke eye
Definition An addition. An organ through which animals see (“perceive surroundings via light”).

Where the eye mixes eke and eye

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
eke
3 ch
eye

Look-alike desk: eke vs eye

A purely visual mix-up. eke (/iːk/) and eye (/aɪ/) 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 a single letter - k in “eke” becomes y in “eye”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46370, 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/. eye is at rank #1,018, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aɪ/.

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 46370, this pair ranks #212,397 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of eke vs eye

Shared letters: e. Private to "eke": k. Private to "eye": y.

"eke" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "eye" · 3 letters · shape VVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eke" for "eye" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/iːk/ versus /aɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "eke" or "eye" show up more?
"eye" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,018 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "eke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,397 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eke" and "eye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eke vs Eri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #212,397 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