Which to use
“ear” is an adjective and “eat” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,574
- “ear” frequency rank
- #28,550
- “eat” frequency rank
- 68124
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ear | eat |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | coclear | comer |
Letter map: ear vs eat
Shared letters muted; letters that set ear and eat apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. ear and eat follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: ear vs eat
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ear is anadjective and eataverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - r in “ear” becomes t in “eat”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68124, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ear is recorded at frequency rank #39,574, classified as anadj. eat is at rank #28,550, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈiːt/.
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 68124, this pair ranks #4,394 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ear vs eat
Shared letters: ae. Private to "ear": r. Private to "eat": t.
"ear" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "eat" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ear" for "eat" ever safe?
Frequency check: "ear" vs "eat" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "ear" vs "eat" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "ear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "eat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,394 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ear" and "eat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ear vs être". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #4,394 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.