eh
/eɪ/
"eh" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“eh” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #4,595) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #4,595
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.
Corpus desk
Index EN-eh · eh · English
eh · rank #4,595 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #4,595
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH disappeared
Nearest frequency peer: disappeared (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “eh”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- convince
convince
95,409 corpus weight
- Cooper
Cooper
95,408 corpus weight
- disappeared
disappeared
95,407 corpus weight
- eh
eh
95,406 corpus weight
- encounter
encounter
95,405 corpus weight
- equality
equality
95,404 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “eh” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | eh |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /eɪ/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #4,595 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “eh” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for eh is neighbouring look-alikes ("ex", "et", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced /eɪ/. Frequency #4,595 among 2,246 “E” headwords. 6 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for eh, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ex", "et", "EU", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Natural exclamation; first recorded mid-16th century. Perhaps an unstressed variant of aye (“yes, yeah”). The Philippine sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog e and/or Spanish eh. The correct English form is eh, spelled E-H.
Definition
- 1Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.
- 2In isolation, a request for repetition or clarification of what has just been said.
- 3In isolation, expressing surprise or confusion
- 4An interjection used to ascertain the continued attention of someone addressed by the speaker.
- 5Expressing apathy or lack of enthusiasm; meh.
- 6Expressing apprehension following or preceding a reasoning or excuse; uh.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how eh appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
These hot dogs are pretty good, eh?
Well, what dost thou think then of seeing the world? Do ye wish to go round Cape Horn to see any more of it, eh? Can’t ye see the world where you stand?
Etymology
Natural exclamation; first recorded mid-16th century. Perhaps an unstressed variant of aye (“yes, yeah”). The Philippine sense is possibly influenced by Tagalog e and/or Spanish eh.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What to do next
You've looked up "eh". Here's where to go from here.
- "eh" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "ex". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #4,595 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "E" letter cohort. E–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.