keevskeepsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#26,855
“kee” frequency rank
#2,161
“keeps” frequency rank
29016
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kee keeps
Definition Alternative form of kye (“cow”). plural of keep

Where the eye mixes kee and keeps

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
kee
5 ch
keeps

Look-alike desk: kee vs keeps

A purely visual mix-up. kee (/kiː/) and keeps (/kiːps/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “kee” sits inside “keeps”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29016, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kee is recorded at frequency rank #26,855, classified as anoun, pronounced /kiː/. keeps is at rank #2,161, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kiːps/.

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 29016, this pair ranks #366,451 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kee vs keeps

Shared letters: ek. Private to "kee": -. Private to "keeps": ps.

"kee" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "keeps" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • keepsekeps · keepps · keepss · keesp · kepes · keps · kkeeps

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kee" for "keeps" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kiː/ versus /kiːps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kee" vs "keeps" - which ranks higher?
"keeps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,161 in our English list, against #26,855 for "kee". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "kee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "keeps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,451 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kee" and "keeps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kee vs Kop". 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 #366,451 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