tears
/tɪɹz/
"tears" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tears” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #3,198 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,198
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - plural of tear (“liquid from the eyes”)
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 | tears |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /tɪɹz/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,198 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tears” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for tears is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɪɹz/. Corpus data places it at rank #3,198 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for tears, with forms such as "etars", "taers", and "tearrs". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ter", "term", "tens", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is tears, spelled T-E-A-R-S.
Definition
- 1plural of tear (“liquid from the eyes”)
- 2Viscous streaks left on the inside of the glass when certain wines are swirled around before tasting.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: etars,taers,tearrs,tearss,teasr,teras,ttears
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tears - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
How do you spell "tears"?
What does "tears" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "tears"?
How do you pronounce "tears"?
What language does "tears" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “tears”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-E-A-R-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tɪɹz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ter” - see the side-by-side comparison. tears vs ter
- 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.