charityvschastityWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,283
“charity” frequency rank
#24,110
“chastity” frequency rank
27393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature charity chastity
Definition An organization, the objective of which is to carry out a charitable purpose. The quality of being chaste: the state of abstaining from any sexual activity considered immoral; avoidance of sexual sins.

Where the eye mixes charity and chastity

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. charity runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against chastity's 8 (CCVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
charity
8 ch
chastity

Visual trap between charity and chastity

A purely visual mix-up. charity (/ˈtʃæɹɪti/) and chastity (/ˈt͡ʃastɪti/) 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 27393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

charity is recorded at frequency rank #3,283, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtʃæɹɪti/. chastity is at rank #24,110, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃastɪti/.

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 27393, this pair ranks #379,265 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of charity vs chastity

Shared letters: achity. Private to "charity": r. Private to "chastity": s.

"charity" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "chastity" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charity ← cahrity · ccharity · chairty · charitty · charityy · chariyt · charrity · chartiy
  • chastity ← cahstity · cchastity · chasitty · chasstity · chastitty · chastityy · chastiyt · chasttity

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "charity" and "chastity" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈtʃæɹɪti/ versus /ˈt͡ʃastɪti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "charity" or "chastity"?
"charity" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,283 in our English list, against #24,110 for "chastity". 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 "charity" and "chastity" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "charity" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chastity" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #379,265 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "charity" and "chastity" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chastity vs chatty". 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 #379,265 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