theme
/θiːm/
"theme" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“theme” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,411 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,411
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
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 | theme |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /θiːm/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,411 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “theme” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for theme is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /θiːm/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,411 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 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 theme, with forms such as "hteme", "tehme", and "theem". 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, "they", "time", "then", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English teme, from Old French teme, tesme (French thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do). D… The correct English form is theme, spelled T-H-E-M-E.
Definition
- 1A subject, now especially of a talk or an artistic piece; a topic.
- 2A recurring idea; a motif.
- 3A recurring idea; a motif.
- 4An essay written for school.
- 5The main melody of a piece of music, especially one that is the source of variations.
- 6A song, or a snippet of a song, that identifies a film, a TV program, a character, etc. by playing at the appropriate time.
- 7An additional puzzle within the crossword, typically involving a set of non-standard clues or answers.
- 8The stem of a word.
- 9Thematic relation of a noun phrase to a verb.
- 10Theta role in generative grammar and government and binding theory.
- 11Topic, what is generally being talked about.
- 12A regional unit of organisation in the Byzantine empire.
Etymology
From Middle English teme, from Old French teme, tesme (French thème), from Latin thema, from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”), reduplicative from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place, do”) (whence also English do). Doublet of thema.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hteme,tehme,theem,themme,thheme,thmee,ttheme
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of theme - 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 “theme”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is T-H-E-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /θiːm/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “they” - see the side-by-side comparison. theme vs they
- 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.