Which to use
“thaw” is a verb and “them” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,130
- “thaw” frequency rank
- #71
- “them” frequency rank
- 23201
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thaw | them |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To gradually melt, dissolve, or become fluid; to soften from frozen. | Those ones. |
Where the eye mixes thaw and them
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses thaw with them
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thaw is /θɔː/ while them is /ˈðɛm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thaw is recorded at frequency rank #23,130, classified as averb, pronounced /θɔː/. them is at rank #71, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈðɛm/.
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 23201, this pair ranks #411,015 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of thaw vs them
Shared letters: ht. Private to "thaw": aw. Private to "them": em.
"thaw" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "them" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "thaw" and "them" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "thaw" or "them"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "thaw" and "them" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "thaw" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "them" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #411,015 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thaw" and "them" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thaw 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 #411,015 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.