Which to use
“bead” and “bevy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,178
- “bead” frequency rank
- #49,788
- “bevy” frequency rank
- 65966
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bead | bevy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prayer, later especially with a rosary. | A group of animals, particularly quail. |
Where the eye mixes bead and bevy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bead with bevy
A purely visual mix-up. bead (/biːd/) and bevy (/ˈbɛvi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bead is recorded at frequency rank #16,178, classified as anoun, pronounced /biːd/. bevy is at rank #49,788, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɛvi/.
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 65966, this pair ranks #70,209 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bead vs bevy
Shared letters: be. Private to "bead": ad. Private to "bevy": vy.
"bead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "bevy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bead" and "bevy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "bead" or "bevy" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "bead" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bevy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,209 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bead" and "bevy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bendy vs bevy". 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 #70,209 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.