Which to use
“theft” is a noun and “them” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,845
- “theft” frequency rank
- #71
- “them” frequency rank
- 5916
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | theft | them |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of stealing property. | Those ones. |
Where the eye mixes theft and them
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: theft vs them
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: theft is /θɛft/ while them is /ˈðɛm/. 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 (noun vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
theft is recorded at frequency rank #5,845, classified as anoun, pronounced /θɛft/. 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 5916, this pair ranks #513,518 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of theft vs them
Shared letters: eht. Private to "theft": f. Private to "them": m.
"theft" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "them" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "theft" for "them" ever safe?
Frequency check: "theft" vs "them" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "theft" and "them" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "theft" 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 #513,518 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "theft" and "them" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "theft vs tuft". 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 #513,518 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.