Which to use
“thine” is a determiner and “three” is a num - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,485
- “thine” frequency rank
- #164
- “three” frequency rank
- 19649
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thine | three |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Second-person singular prevocalic possessive determiner (preconsonantal form: thy). | A numerical value after two and before four. Represented in Arabic digits as 3; this many dots (•••). |
Where the eye mixes thine and three
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: thine vs three
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thine is /ðaɪn/ while three is /θɹiː/. 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 (determiner vs num), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thine is recorded at frequency rank #19,485, classified as adet, pronounced /ðaɪn/. three is at rank #164, tagged as anum, pronounced /θɹiː/.
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 19649, this pair ranks #436,688 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of thine vs three
Shared letters: eht. Private to "thine": in. Private to "three": r.
"thine" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "three" · 5 letters · shape CCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thine" for "three" ever safe?
Which is more common, "thine" or "three"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "thine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "three" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,688 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thine" and "three" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thine vs Thun". 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 #436,688 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.