Calvary or cavalry?
calvary is a noun meaning “A life-size representation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on a piece of…”; cavalry is a noun meaning “The military arm of service that fights while riding horses”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) cavalry is about 6.5 times as common as calvary.
What is the difference between calvary and cavalry?
| calvary | cavalry | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun |
| Meaning | A life-size representation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on a piece of raised ground A series of representations of Christ’s Passion in a church | The military arm of service that fights while riding horses An individual unit of this arm of service |
| Example | Calvaries are typical of Galicia (Spain) and Portugal | call in the cavalry |
| Forms | calvaries | cavalries |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ˈkæ.vəl.ɹi/ /ˈkæl.və.ɹi/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 6.3 times per million words |
Sources: calvary and cavalry 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 calvary and cavalry
calvary
- 1
A life-size representation of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on a piece of raised ground
- 2
A series of representations of Christ’s Passion in a church
- 3
A type of monumental public Christian cross, sometimes encased in an open shrine
Calvaries are typical of Galicia (Spain) and Portugal
- 4
A strenuous experience
cavalry
- 1
The military arm of service that fights while riding horses
- 2
An individual unit of this arm of service
- 3
The branch of the military transported by fast light vehicles, also known as mechanized cavalry
- 4
A source of rescue, especially in an emergency
call in the cavalry
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, calvary or cavalry?
calvary appears about once in every 1 million words; cavalry 6.3 times per million words.
calvary about once in every 1 million wordscavalry 6.3 times per 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 calvary vs cavalry?
“calvary vs cavalry” is searched about 3,600 times a month on Google and 90 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“cavalry vs calvary”, “calvary or cavalry”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.