Which to use
“spleen” and “spree” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,321
- “spleen” frequency rank
- #13,812
- “spree” frequency rank
- 38133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spleen | spree |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In vertebrates, including humans, a ductless vascular gland, located in the left upper abdomen near the stomach, which destroys old red blood cells, removes debris from the bloodstream, acts as a reservoir of blood, and produces lymphocytes. | Uninhibited activity. |
Where the eye mixes spleen and spree
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. spleen runs 6 letters (CCCVVC) against spree's 5 (CCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between spleen and spree
A purely visual mix-up. spleen (/spliːn/) and spree (/spɹiː/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spleen is recorded at frequency rank #24,321, classified as anoun, pronounced /spliːn/. spree is at rank #13,812, tagged as anoun, pronounced /spɹiː/.
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 38133, this pair ranks #288,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of spleen vs spree
Shared letters: eps. Private to "spleen": ln. Private to "spree": r.
"spleen" · 6 letters · shape CCCVVC · "spree" · 5 letters · shape CCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "spleen" for "spree" ever safe?
Which is more common, "spleen" or "spree"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "spleen" and "spree" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "spleen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spree" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #288,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spleen" and "spree" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "silken vs spleen". 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 #288,553 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.