Which to use
“thy” is a determiner and “thyme” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,014
- “thy” frequency rank
- #26,628
- “thyme” frequency rank
- 32642
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thy | thyme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Possessive form of thou: that which belongs to thee; which belongs to you (singular). | 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 thy and thyme
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between thy and thyme
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thy is /ðaɪ/ while thyme is /taɪm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “thy” sits inside “thyme”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thy is recorded at frequency rank #6,014, classified as adet, pronounced /ðaɪ/. 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 32642, this pair ranks #336,138 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thy vs thyme
Shared letters: hty. Private to "thy": -. Private to "thyme": em.
"thy" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "thyme" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- thyme ← htyme · thhyme · thmye · thyem · thymme · thyyme · tthyme · tyhme
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "thy" and "thyme" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "thy" or "thyme" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "thy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thyme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #336,138 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thy" and "thyme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thyme vs thymus". 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 #336,138 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.