TexanvsthanTell them apart

Quick tell: Texan is a adjective, than is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Texan” is an adjective and “than” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,129
“Texan” frequency rank
#77
“than” frequency rank
23206
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Texan than
Definition Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of the U.S. state of Texas. Used in comparisons, to introduce the basis of comparison.

Where the eye mixes Texan and than

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

5 ch
Texan
4 ch
than

Why the eye confuses Texan with than

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Texan is /ˈtɛksən/ while than is /ðæn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23206, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Texan is recorded at frequency rank #23,129, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈtɛksən/. than is at rank #77, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ðæn/.

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 23206, this pair ranks #410,963 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Texan vs than

Shared letters: ant. Private to "Texan": ex. Private to "than": h.

"Texan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "than" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Texanetxan · teaxn · texann · texna · texxan · ttexan · txean
  • thanhtan · tahn · thann · thhan · thna · tthan

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Texan" and "than" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Texan" is an adjective and "than" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Texan" vs "than" - which ranks higher?
"than" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #77 in our English list, against #23,129 for "Texan". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Texan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "than" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,963 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Texan" and "than" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Teton vs Texan". 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 #410,963 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