Thames
/tɛmz/
"thames" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Thames” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,780 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #10,780
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A river in southern England, flowing 336 km (209 mi.) from Gloucestershire, through Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Greater London, and between Essex and Kent to the ...
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 | Thames |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /tɛmz/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #10,780 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Thames” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Thames is 6 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /tɛmz/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,780 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for Thames, with forms such as "htames", "tahmes", and "thaems". 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, "times", "theme", "thats", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Temese, from Old English Temes, Temese (compare Welsh Tafwys), from Latin Tamesis, Tamesas. Variant spellings with h arose in Middle English due to the mistaken assumption of a Greek etymology. The Latin name is from Proto-Brythonic *Tam… The correct English form is Thames, spelled T-H-A-M-E-S.
Definition
- 1A river in southern England, flowing 336 km (209 mi.) from Gloucestershire, through Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Greater London, and between Essex and Kent to the Thames Estuary and North Sea.
- 2A sea area centred on the Thames Estuary.
- 3A river in Ontario, Canada, flowing 258 km (160 mi.) to Lake St. Clair.
- 4A river in the U.S. State of Connecticut flowing 24 km (15 mi.) past New London to Long Island Sound.
- 5A town in Thames-Coromandel district, Waikato, New Zealand, situated on the Firth of Thames (a large bay) and the Coromandel Peninsula.
- 6A surname.
Etymology
From Middle English Temese, from Old English Temes, Temese (compare Welsh Tafwys), from Latin Tamesis, Tamesas. Variant spellings with h arose in Middle English due to the mistaken assumption of a Greek etymology. The Latin name is from Proto-Brythonic *Tamesis, from Proto-Celtic *tamesās (“river, waters”, literally “darkness”), a masculine ā-stem of *tames, Proto-Indo-European *tm̥Hes-, zero-grade of *témHes-, *témHos- (“darkness”), an s-stem from the root *temH- (“dark”). Related to Proto-Celtic *temeslos (“darkness”), *temos (“dark”). A parallel in Proto-Celtic of "dark, darkness" taking on the figurative meaning of "water" can also be found in Proto-Celtic *dubros (“water, dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰubrós (“dark”), yielding Welsh dŵr (“water”), Irish dobhar (“water, sea, dark, gloomy”). Hydronyms with their origin in this term also occur elsewhere in Europe, for example Portugal's Douro. Alternatively from Proto-Celtic *tā-, *tāyo- (“to melt, flow”), from Proto-Indo-European *teh₂- (“to melt”), or from unknown non-Indo-European root. Possible cognates include the names of rivers and tributaries such as: * Taff, Tamar (from Latin Tamarus), Tame, Tavy, Team, Teifi (from Welsh Teifi, from Old Welsh Tebi, Teibi), Teme, and Teviot (Latin Tefius, Teifius) in Great Britain * Tambre (from Latin Tamaris), Támega (in Galician, Portuguese Tâmega, Latin Tamice), Támoga or Támboga (Latin Tamega), and Tamuxe, all of them flowing through Galicia (Spain) and northern Portugal * Tamaran in France * Tammaro (from Latin Tamarus) in Italy * Demer in Belgium * Tamyras in Phoenicia * Tiberis (Tiber) * Tons, Tamasa (from Sanskrit तमसा (tamasā)) in India More at Thames.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: htames,tahmes,thaems,thamess,thammes,thamse,thhames,thmaes,tthames
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Thames - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “Thames”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-A-M-E-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /tɛmz/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “times” - see the side-by-side comparison. Thames vs times
- 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.