Which to use
“meager” is an adjective and “meeker” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,213
- “meager” frequency rank
- #46,615
- “meeker” frequency rank
- 73828
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | meager | meeker |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having little flesh; lean; thin. | To break up and smooth soil with a harrow. |
Letter map: meager vs meeker
Shared letters muted; letters that set meager and meeker apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. meager and meeker follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: meager vs meeker
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: meager is anadjective and meekeraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
meager is recorded at frequency rank #27,213, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmiɡɚ/. meeker is at rank #46,615, tagged as averb.
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 73828, this pair ranks #38,272 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of meager vs meeker
Shared letters: emr. Private to "meager": ag. Private to "meeker": k.
"meager" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "meeker" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "meager" for "meeker" ever safe?
Which is more common, "meager" or "meeker"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "meager" and "meeker".
- Full dictionary entry for "meager" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "meeker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,272 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "meager" and "meeker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "meeker vs Meijer". 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 #38,272 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.