Which to use
“theft” is a noun and “them” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,182
- “theft” frequency rank
- #19,418
- “them” frequency rank
- 62600
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | theft | them |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vol. | Dire. |
Where the eye mixes theft and them
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: theft vs them
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: theft is \θɛft\ while them is \θem\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62600, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
theft is recorded at frequency rank #43,182, classified as anoun, pronounced \θɛft\. them is at rank #19,418, tagged as averb, pronounced \θem\.
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 62600, this pair ranks #86,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of theft vs them
Shared letters: eht. Private to "theft": f. Private to "them": m.
"theft" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "them" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "theft" for "them" ever safe?
Frequency check: "theft" vs "them" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "theft" and "them" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "theft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "them" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "theft" and "them" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "theft vs thés". 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
Confusion rank #86,270 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.