ESvsexesConfusable pair

Quick tell: ES is a name, exes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ES” is a name and “exes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,919
“ES” frequency rank
#26,415
“exes” frequency rank
34334
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ES exes
Definition Initialism of Espírito Santo: a state of Brazil. plural of ex

Letter map: ES vs exes

Shared letters muted; letters that set ES and exes apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch
ES
4 ch
exes

Role in the sentence - ES and exes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ES is aname and exesanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ES” sits inside “exes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34334, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ES is recorded at frequency rank #7,919, classified as aname. exes is at rank #26,415, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛksəz/.

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 34334, this pair ranks #321,735 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ES vs exes

Shared letters: es. Private to "ES": -. Private to "exes": x.

"ES" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "exes" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exeseexs · exess · exse · exxes · xees

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ES" and "exes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ES" is a name and "exes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "ES" or "exes" show up more?
"ES" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,919 in our English list, against #26,415 for "exes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ES" and "exes".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ES" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,735 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ES" and "exes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exes vs exon". 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 #321,735 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