eir
/ɛɹ/
"eir" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“eir” is uncommon English (frequency #60,787 among 2,246 “E” headwords), classed as a determiner. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,787
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Belonging to em, gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, equivalent to the singular their and coordinate with his and her.
Corpus desk
Index EN-eir · eir · English
eir · rank #60,787 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #60,787
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH eigenvalue
Nearest frequency peer: eigenvalue (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “eir”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- educative
educative
39,217 corpus weight
- egoism
egoism
39,216 corpus weight
- eigenvalue
eigenvalue
39,215 corpus weight
- eir
eir
39,214 corpus weight
- Eldar
Eldar
39,213 corpus weight
- elt
elt
39,212 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “eir” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | eir |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Determiner |
| IPA | /ɛɹ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #60,787 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “eir” in English
Rare enough to double-check
eir is uncommon English at frequency #60,787 among 2,246 “E” headwords, classed as adeterminer, transcribed /ɛɹ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Belonging to em, gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, equivalent to the singular their and coordinate with his and her.".
No misspelling variants are generated for eir in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
Etymologically, the entry records: Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing "th" from their. The correct English form is eir, spelled E-I-R.
Definition
- 1Belonging to em, gender-neutral third-person singular possessive adjective, equivalent to the singular their and coordinate with his and her.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how eir appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Eir sentences would sound smoother since ey wouldn’t clutter them with the old sexist pronouns. And if ey should trip up in the new usage, ey would only have emself to blame.
A person whose habit is to stand and walk splay-footed may *think* eir feet are straight ahead, when they are actually pointed only slightly less out.
Etymology
Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing "th" from their.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "eir", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).