Which to use
“themself” and “thyself” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,379
- “themself” frequency rank
- #35,113
- “thyself” frequency rank
- 82492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | themself | thyself |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The reflexive form of they, the third-person singular personal pronoun. The single person previously mentioned, as the object of a verb or following a preposition (also used for emphasis). | yourself (as the object of a verb or preposition or as an intensifier); reflexive case of thou |
Where the eye mixes themself and thyself
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. themself (/ðɛmˈsɛlf/) and thyself (/ðaɪˈsɛlf/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
themself is recorded at frequency rank #47,379, classified as apron, pronounced /ðɛmˈsɛlf/. thyself is at rank #35,113, tagged as apron, pronounced /ðaɪˈsɛlf/.
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 82492, this pair ranks #15,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of themself vs thyself
Shared letters: efhlst. Private to "themself": m. Private to "thyself": y.
"themself" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC · "thyself" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC