eye for an eye
"eye-for-an-eye" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“eye for an eye” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Compensation for injury caused by a person, in the form of inflicting an identical injury on that person.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | eye for an eye |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “eye for an eye” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for eye for an eye is 14 letters long, classified as a noun. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Compensation for injury caused by a person, in the form of inflicting an identical injury on that person.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for eye for an eye, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: Calque of Hebrew עין תחת עין (ayin tahat ayin), in reference to Exodus 21:23-25: "And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for st… The correct English form is eye for an eye, spelled E-Y-E- -F-O-R- -A-N- -E-Y-E.
Definition
- 1Compensation for injury caused by a person, in the form of inflicting an identical injury on that person.
Etymology
Calque of Hebrew עין תחת עין (ayin tahat ayin), in reference to Exodus 21:23-25: "And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (King James Version; spelling modernized).
Antonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “eye for an eye”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is E-Y-E- -F-O-R- -A-N- -E-Y-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- 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.