kenvskingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ken” and “king” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,440
“ken” frequency rank
#4,915
“king” frequency rank
16355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ken king
Definition Savia, jugo. Rey.

Where the eye mixes ken and king

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ken
4 ch
king

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. ken ([kʰen] /ken/) and king (/kɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ken is recorded at frequency rank #11,440, classified as anoun, pronounced [kʰen] /ken/. king is at rank #4,915, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɪŋ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 16355, this pair ranks #276,504 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ken vs king

Shared letters: kn. Private to "ken": e. Private to "king": gi.

"ken" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "king" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kingikng · kign · kingg · kinng · kking · knig

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ken" and "king" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([kʰen] /ken/ versus /kɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ken" or "king"?
"king" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,915 in our Spanish list, against #11,440 for "ken". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "ken" and "king". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "king" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #276,504 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ken" and "king" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kano vs ken". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list