Which to use
“ker” and “kern” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,929
- “ker” frequency rank
- #23,580
- “kern” frequency rank
- 62509
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ker | kern |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A chief of the Luo people. | A corn; grain; kernel. |
Letter map: ker vs kern
Shared letters muted; letters that set ker and kern apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. ker runs 3 letters (CVC) against kern's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Spelling & dictionary notes on ker vs kern
ker and kern 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 differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ker” sits inside “kern”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ker is recorded at frequency rank #38,929, classified as anoun. kern is at rank #23,580, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɜːn/.
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 62509, this pair ranks #88,096 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ker vs kern
Shared letters: ekr. Private to "ker": -. Private to "kern": n.
"ker" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "kern" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- kern ← ekrn · kenr · kernn · kerrn · kkern · kren
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ker" for "kern" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "ker" or "kern" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ker" and "kern".
- Full dictionary entry for "ker" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #88,096 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ker" and "kern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ker 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 #88,096 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.