berryvsbevyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“berry” and “bevy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,419
“berry” frequency rank
#49,788
“bevy” frequency rank
57207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature berry bevy
Definition A small succulent fruit, of any one of many varieties. A group of animals, particularly quail.

Where the eye mixes berry and bevy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. berry runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against bevy's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
berry
4 ch
bevy

Why the eye confuses berry with bevy

A purely visual mix-up. berry (/ˈbɛɹi/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

berry is recorded at frequency rank #7,419, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbɛɹi/. 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 57207, this pair ranks #120,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of berry vs bevy

Shared letters: bey. Private to "berry": r. Private to "bevy": v.

"berry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bevy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • berry ← bberry · berryy · bery · beryr · brery · ebrry
  • bevy ← bbevy · bevvy · bevyy · beyv · bvey · ebvy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "berry" and "bevy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbɛɹi/ versus /ˈbɛvi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "berry" or "bevy"?
"berry" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,419 in our English list, against #49,788 for "bevy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "berry" and "bevy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "berry" 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 #120,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "berry" 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 #120,879 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list