ergvsESCTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,222
“erg” frequency rank
#33,641
“ESC” frequency rank
81863
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature erg ESC
Definition A unit of work or energy, being the amount of work done by a force of one dyne applied through a distance of one centimeter. Equal to 10⁻⁷ joules. Initialism of electronic stability control.

Letter map: erg vs ESC

Shared letters muted; letters that set erg and ESC apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. erg and ESC follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
erg
3 ch
ESC

Corpus notes: erg and ESC

erg and ESC are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81863, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

erg is recorded at frequency rank #48,222, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɜːɡ/. ESC is at rank #33,641, tagged as anoun.

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 81863, this pair ranks #16,829 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of erg vs ESC

Shared letters: e. Private to "erg": gr. Private to "ESC": cs.

"erg" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ESC" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "erg" for "ESC" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "erg" vs "ESC" - which ranks higher?
"ESC" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,641 in our English list, against #48,222 for "erg". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "erg" and "ESC".

  • Full dictionary entry for "erg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ESC" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,829 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "erg" and "ESC" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "erg vs Eri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #16,829 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