tier
/ˈtaɪ.ə/
"tier" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“tier” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #5,559) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #5,559
- frequency rank, English
- 3,151
- “T” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - One who ties (knots, etc.).
Corpus desk
Index EN-tier · tier · English
tier · rank #5,559 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #5,559
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,151
- PHOTO-FINISH thou
Nearest frequency peer: thou (-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 “tier”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- sunshine
sunshine
94,445 corpus weight
- teens
teens
94,444 corpus weight
- thou
thou
94,443 corpus weight
- tier
tier
94,442 corpus weight
- Tommy
Tommy
94,441 corpus weight
- travelling
travelling
94,440 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “tier” 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 | tier |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈtaɪ.ə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,559 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “tier”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for tier is neighbouring look-alikes ("tip", "Tim", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈtaɪ.ə/. Frequency #5,559 among 3,151 “T” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for tier, with forms such as "iter", "teir", and "tierr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tip", "Tim", "toe", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From tie + -er. The correct English form is tier, spelled T-I-E-R.
Definition
- 1One who ties (knots, etc.).
- 2Something that ties.
- 3A child's apron.
Etymology
From tie + -er.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- iter
- teir
- tierr
- ttier
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tier - 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tier", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).