ese
/ˈɛˌseɪ/
"ese" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ese” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #34,478) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #34,478
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - dude, man. (Usually used vocatively).
Corpus desk
Index EN-ese · ese · English
ese · rank #34,478 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #34,478
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH Ervin
Nearest frequency peer: Ervin (-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 neighbours of confusable “ese”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- encroachment
encroachment
65,526 corpus weight
- equaliser
equaliser
65,525 corpus weight
- Ervin
Ervin
65,524 corpus weight
- ese
ese
65,523 corpus weight
- Etihad
Etihad
65,522 corpus weight
- Euclid
Euclid
65,521 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “ese” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | ese |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛˌseɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #34,478 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “ese”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ese is neighbouring look-alikes ("ex", "et", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈɛˌseɪ/. Frequency #34,478 among 2,246 “E” headwords. Gloss: "dude, man. (Usually used vocatively).".
No generated misspelling entries exist for ese in our index, 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, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Mexican Spanish ése (“dude”). The correct English form is ese, spelled E-S-E.
Definition
- 1dude, man. (Usually used vocatively).
Etymology
Borrowed from Mexican Spanish ése (“dude”).
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 "ese", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).