keep an eye on
"keep-an-eye-on" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“keep an eye on” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To watch and pay attention to, in case of misbehaviour or mishap.
Corpus desk
Index EN-keep-an-eye-on · keep an eye on · English
keep an eye on · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-7 7 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "K" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | keep an eye on |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “keep an eye on” in English
Rare enough to double-check
keep an eye on is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To watch and pay attention to, in case of misbehaviour or mishap.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for keep an eye on, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is keep an eye on, spelled K-E-E-P- -A-N- -E-Y-E- -O-N.
Definition
- 1To watch and pay attention to, in case of misbehaviour or mishap.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how keep an eye on appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I must keep an eye on this sauce in case it curdles.
"[...] We are making sure that a firm eye is kept on this."
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.