Skip to main content
PlainSpell

ese

/ˈɛˌseɪ/noun

ese is spelled E-S-E: 3 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Ese, the name). As a noun, ese means “dude, man. (Usually used vocatively)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ese is eses.

How many letters and syllables are in ese?

Letters3: E-S-E
Syllables2 (from its pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 34,504th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ese?

Ese appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Ese, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ese?

  • US /ˈɛˌseɪ/

Ese has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-ese.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl--ese.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with ese

Sounds like: essay (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: ease.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with ese?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ese from its last stressed vowel (/ɛseɪ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: see, ees.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ese

  • eses plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ese mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    USdude, man. (Usually used vocatively).

noun

as ESE
  1. 1

    Initialism of east-southeast.

adjective

as ESE
  1. 1

    Initialism of east-southeast.

adverb

as ESE
  1. 1

    Initialism of east-southeast.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ese in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portugueseés-sudeste, ESE (initialism of east-southeast), -ês, -esa, -ano, -ana (forming adjectives or nouns describing things…)
French-ais, -ois (forming adjectives or nouns describing things…)
German-isch, -ese, -er (forming adjectives or nouns describing things…)
Spanish-és, -esa, -ense, -ano, -ana (forming adjectives or nouns describing things…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does ese come from?

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish ése (“dude”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after ese