evenvsexesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#108
“even” frequency rank
#26,415
“exes” frequency rank
26523
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature even exes
Definition Flat and level. plural of ex

Where the eye mixes even and exes

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

4 ch
even
4 ch
exes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: even is /ˈiː.vən/ while exes is /ˈɛksəz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

even is recorded at frequency rank #108, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈiː.vən/. 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 26523, this pair ranks #386,056 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of even vs exes

Shared letters: e. Private to "even": nv. Private to "exes": sx.

"even" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "exes" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eveneevn · evenn · evne · evven · veen
  • exeseexs · exess · exse · exxes · xees

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "even" and "exes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "even" is an adjective and "exes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "even" or "exes"?
"even" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #108 in our English list, against #26,415 for "exes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list