Which to use
“there” is an adverb and “thyme” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #57
- “there” frequency rank
- #26,628
- “thyme” frequency rank
- 26685
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | there | thyme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In or at a place or location (stated, implied or otherwise indicated) that is perceived to be away from, or at a relative distance from, the speaker (compare here). | Any plant of the labiate genus Thymus, such as garden thyme (Thymus vulgaris), a warm, pungent aromatic, that is much used to give a relish to seasoning and soups. |
Where the eye mixes there and thyme
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: there is /ðə(ɹ)/ while thyme is /taɪm/. 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 (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26685, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
there is recorded at frequency rank #57, classified as anadv, pronounced /ðə(ɹ)/. thyme is at rank #26,628, tagged as anoun, pronounced /taɪm/.
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 26685, this pair ranks #384,847 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of there vs thyme
Shared letters: eht. Private to "there": r. Private to "thyme": my.
"there" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "thyme" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV