Which to use
“them” is a pronoun and “thin” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #71
- “them” frequency rank
- #3,200
- “thin” frequency rank
- 3271
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | them | thin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Those ones. | Having little thickness or extent from one surface to its opposite. |
Where the eye mixes them and thin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: them is /ˈðɛm/ while thin is /θɪn/. 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 (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
them is recorded at frequency rank #71, classified as apron, pronounced /ˈðɛm/. thin is at rank #3,200, tagged as anadj, pronounced /θɪn/.
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 3271, this pair ranks #522,602 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of them vs thin
Shared letters: ht. Private to "them": em. Private to "thin": in.
"them" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thin" · 4 letters · shape CCVC