Which to use
“thar” is an adverb and “thaw” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,944
- “thar” frequency rank
- #23,130
- “thaw” frequency rank
- 66074
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thar | thaw |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nonstandard form of there. | To gradually melt, dissolve, or become fluid; to soften from frozen. |
Letter map: thar vs thaw
Shared letters muted; letters that set thar and thaw apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for thar / thaw
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thar is anadverb and thawaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - r in “thar” becomes w in “thaw”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66074, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thar is recorded at frequency rank #42,944, classified as anadv. thaw is at rank #23,130, tagged as averb, pronounced /θɔː/.
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 66074, this pair ranks #69,736 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thar vs thaw
Shared letters: aht. Private to "thar": r. Private to "thaw": w.
"thar" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thaw" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thar" for "thaw" ever safe?
Frequency check: "thar" vs "thaw" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "thar" vs "thaw" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "thar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thaw" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #69,736 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thar" and "thaw" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thar vs Trav". 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 #69,736 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.