Which to use
“thicke” is an adjective and “tickle” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,202
- “thicke” frequency rank
- #21,387
- “tickle” frequency rank
- 59589
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thicke | tickle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obsolete spelling of thick. | The act of tickling. |
Letter map: thicke vs tickle
Shared letters muted; letters that set thicke and tickle apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. thicke (CCVCCV) and tickle (CVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for thicke / tickle
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thicke is anadjective and tickleanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59589, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thicke is recorded at frequency rank #38,202, classified as anadj. tickle is at rank #21,387, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɪkl̩/.
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 59589, this pair ranks #105,249 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thicke vs tickle
Shared letters: ceikt. Private to "thicke": h. Private to "tickle": l.
"thicke" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "tickle" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thicke" for "tickle" ever safe?
Which is more common, "thicke" or "tickle"?
After this comparison
You've compared "thicke" and "tickle". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "thicke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tickle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #105,249 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thicke" and "tickle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thicke 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 #105,249 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.