there'svsTheseusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: there's is a contraction, Theseus is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“there's” is a contraction and “Theseus” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#267
“there's” frequency rank
#40,476
“Theseus” frequency rank
40743
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature there's Theseus
Definition Contraction of there is. A legendary Ancient Greek hero most famous for defeating the minotaur in the labyrinth of Crete.

Where the eye mixes there's and Theseus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. there's runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against Theseus's 7 (CCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
there's
7 ch
Theseus

Look-alike desk: there's vs Theseus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: there's is /ðəɹz/ while Theseus is /ˈθiːsjuːs/. 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 (contraction vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40743, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

there's is recorded at frequency rank #267, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ðəɹz/. Theseus is at rank #40,476, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈθiːsjuːs/.

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 40743, this pair ranks #264,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of there's vs Theseus

Shared letters: ehst. Private to "there's": r. Private to "Theseus": u.

"there's" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "Theseus" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Theseus ← hteseus · tehseus · theesus · thesesu · theseuss · thesseus · thesues · thheseus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "there's" and "Theseus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "there's" is a contraction and "Theseus" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "there's" or "Theseus" show up more?
"there's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #267 in our English list, against #40,476 for "Theseus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "there's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Theseus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #264,787 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "there's" and "Theseus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Thebes vs Theseus". 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 #264,787 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list