Which to use
“thyme” and “tye” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,628
- “thyme” frequency rank
- #40,491
- “tye” frequency rank
- 67119
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thyme | tye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Obsolete form of tie. |
Letter map: thyme vs tye
Shared letters muted; letters that set thyme and tye apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Spelling & dictionary notes on thyme vs tye
thyme and tye are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thyme is recorded at frequency rank #26,628, classified as anoun, pronounced /taɪm/. tye is at rank #40,491, tagged as anoun.
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 67119, this pair ranks #64,834 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thyme vs tye
Shared letters: ety. Private to "thyme": hm. Private to "tye": -.
"thyme" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "tye" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- thyme ← htyme · thhyme · thmye · thyem · thymme · thyyme · tthyme · tyhme
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "thyme" and "tye" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "thyme" vs "tye" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "thyme" and "tye". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "thyme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,834 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thyme" and "tye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Taf vs tye". 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 #64,834 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.