Caddie or caddy?
caddie is a noun meaning “A person engaged to run errands such as carrying goods and messages; a…”; caddy is a noun meaning “A small box or tin (can) with a lid for holding dried tea leaves used to brew…”. They sound the same (/ˈkædi/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) caddy is about 2.3 times as common as caddie.
What is the difference between caddie and caddy?
| caddie | caddy | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | ScotlandA person engaged to run errands such as carrying goods and messages; a commissionaire, an errand boy or errand girl, a gofer; specifically, a member of an… A person hired to assist a golfer by carrying their golf clubs and providing advice Chiefly followed by for: to serve as a caddie (noun etymology 1, noun sense 2) for a golfer | A small box or tin (can) with a lid for holding dried tea leaves used to brew tea A (usually small) box, chest, or tin with a lid, and often with partitions, used to keep things in Chiefly followed by for: alternative spelling of caddie (“to serve as a caddy (noun sense) for a golfer”) |
| Example | none recorded | Place the disc in the DVD caddy |
| Forms | caddies | caddies |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkædi/ [-ɾi] | /ˈkædi/ [-ɾi] |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words | about once in every 1 million words |
Sources: caddie and caddy in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of caddie and caddy
caddie
- 1
ScotlandA person engaged to run errands such as carrying goods and messages; a commissionaire, an errand boy or errand girl, a gofer; specifically, a member of an organized group of such persons working in…
- 2
Chiefly followed by for: to serve as a caddie (noun etymology 1, noun sense 2) for a golfer
- 3
Alternative spelling of caddy
- 4
A person hired to assist a golfer by carrying their golf clubs and providing advice
caddy
- 1
A small box or tin (can) with a lid for holding dried tea leaves used to brew tea
- 2
Alternative spelling of caddie (“a person hired to assist a golfer by carrying their golf clubs and providing advice”)
Caddy, pass me my five iron
- 3
Chiefly followed by for: alternative spelling of caddie (“to serve as a caddy (noun sense) for a golfer”)
I was honored to caddy for Tiger Woods at a charity golf game
- 4
USinformalA Cadillac car
She pulled up in a shiny black Caddy at six o'clock
- 5
A (usually small) box, chest, or tin with a lid, and often with partitions, used to keep things in
- 6
A small lidded bin for food waste
- 7
A movable tray or other mechanism for holding (sometimes within a piece of equipment or machinery), securing, and transporting a removable component
Place the disc in the DVD caddy
- 8
A lightweight wheeled cart; specifically, one attached to a bicycle as a conveyance for a child, or pulled by hand and used to transport groceries away from a shop
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, caddie or caddy?
caddie appears about once in every 3 million words; caddy about once in every 1 million words.
caddie about once in every 3 million wordscaddy about once in every 1 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search caddie vs caddy?
“caddie vs caddy” is searched about 140 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“caddy vs caddie”, “caddie or caddy”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.