Which to use
“thicke” is an adjective and “thicken” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,202
- “thicke” frequency rank
- #41,424
- “thicken” frequency rank
- 79626
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thicke | thicken |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of thick. | To make thicker (in the sense of wider). |
Letter map: thicke vs thicken
Shared letters muted; letters that set thicke and thicken apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Role in the sentence - thicke and thicken
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thicke is anadjective and thickenaverb. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “thicke” sits inside “thicken”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thicke is recorded at frequency rank #38,202, classified as anadj. thicken is at rank #41,424, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈθɪkən/.
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 79626, this pair ranks #21,641 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thicke vs thicken
Shared letters: cehikt. Private to "thicke": -. Private to "thicken": n.
"thicke" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "thicken" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "thicke" and "thicken" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "thicke" vs "thicken" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "thicke" and "thicken". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "thicke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thicken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,641 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thicke" and "thicken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thicken vs thickly". 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 #21,641 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.