ese
/ˈɛˌseɪ/
"ese" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ese” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #34,478 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #34,478
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - dude, man. (Usually used vocatively).
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) |
Where “ese” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ese is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɛˌseɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #34,478 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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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Using “ese”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈɛˌseɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ex” - see the side-by-side comparison. ese vs ex
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.