ekevseyreConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,352
“eke” frequency rank
#24,442
“eyre” frequency rank
69794
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eke eyre
Definition An addition. A journey taken by certain Medieval English itinerant judges (justices in eyre)

Where the eye mixes eke and eyre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. eke runs 3 letters (VCV) against eyre's 4 (VVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
eke
4 ch
eyre

Why the eye confuses eke with eyre

A purely visual mix-up. eke (/iːk/) and eyre (/ɛəɹ/) 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 69794, 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/. eyre is at rank #24,442, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɛəɹ/.

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 69794, this pair ranks #53,107 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of eke vs eyre

Shared letters: e. Private to "eke": k. Private to "eyre": ry.

"eke" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "eyre" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eyre ← erye · eyer · eyrre · eyyre · yere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eke" for "eyre" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/iːk/ versus /ɛəɹ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "eke" vs "eyre" - which ranks higher?
"eyre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,442 in our English list, against #45,352 for "eke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "eke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eyre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,107 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eke" and "eyre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eke vs Eri". 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 #53,107 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