ThanetvsthatTell them apart

Quick tell: Thanet is a name, that is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Thanet” is a name and “that” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,378
“Thanet” frequency rank
#10
“that” frequency rank
47388
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Thanet that
Definition A local government district which includes the Isle of Thanet in Kent, England. Introducing a clause that is the object of a verb, especially a reporting verb or verb expressing belief, knowledge, perception, etc.

Where the eye mixes Thanet and that

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Thanet runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against that's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Thanet
4 ch
that

Visual trap between Thanet and that

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Thanet is /ˈθænɪt/ while that is /ðət/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Thanet is recorded at frequency rank #47,378, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈθænɪt/. that is at rank #10, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ðət/.

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 47388, this pair ranks #202,926 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Thanet vs that

Shared letters: aht. Private to "Thanet": en. Private to "that": -.

"Thanet" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "that" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Thanet ← htanet · tahnet · thaent · thanett · thannet · thante · thhanet · thnaet
  • that ← htat · taht · thatt · thhat · thta · tthat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Thanet" and "that" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Thanet" is a name and "that" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Thanet" or "that" show up more?
"that" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10 in our English list, against #47,378 for "Thanet". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Thanet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "that" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,926 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Thanet" and "that" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Thales vs Thanet". 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 #202,926 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