kei
"kei" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“kei” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #24,215) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #24,215
- frequency rank, English
- 1,236
- “K” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A class of lightweight vehicles with small engines.
Corpus desk
Index EN-kei · kei · English
kei · rank #24,215 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #24,215
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,236
- PHOTO-FINISH justifiable
Nearest frequency peer: justifiable (-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 “kei”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- Joo
Joo
75,789 corpus weight
- jurispruden…
jurisprudence
75,788 corpus weight
- justifiable
justifiable
75,787 corpus weight
- kei
kei
75,786 corpus weight
- Kellogg
Kellogg
75,785 corpus weight
- Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
75,782 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “kei” 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 | kei |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #24,215 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “kei”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for kei is neighbouring look-alikes ("kI", "ky", …), not just typos; it is anoun. Frequency #24,215 among 1,236 “K” headwords. Gloss: "A class of lightweight vehicles with small engines.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for kei, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "kI", "ky", "ko", 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 Japanese 軽 (kei, “lightweight”), from Japanese 軽自動車 (keijidōsha). The correct English form is kei, spelled K-E-I.
Definition
- 1A class of lightweight vehicles with small engines.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how kei appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Nissan Motor Co. revamped one of its more popular lightweight kei cars as the Japanese carmaker refreshes its aging lineup. The fourth-generation Roox will go on sale by the end of the year for ¥1.6 million ($10,800), the company said Friday. The new model has better mileage, more safety features and built-in connectivity. Kei cars account for about a thi…
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 軽 (kei, “lightweight”), from Japanese 軽自動車 (keijidōsha).
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 "kei", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).