chartvsclaryWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,152
“chart” frequency rank
#37,855
“clary” frequency rank
41007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chart clary
Definition A map. clary sage (Salvia sclarea)

Where the eye mixes chart and clary

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chart (CCVCC) and clary (CCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
chart
5 ch
clary

Look-alike desk: chart vs clary

A purely visual mix-up. chart (/t͡ʃɑɹt/) and clary (/ˈklɛəɹi/) 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 41007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chart is recorded at frequency rank #3,152, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɑɹt/. clary is at rank #37,855, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈklɛəɹi/.

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 41007, this pair ranks #262,374 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chart vs clary

Shared letters: acr. Private to "chart": ht. Private to "clary": ly.

"chart" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "clary" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chart ← cahrt · cchart · charrt · chartt · chatr · chhart · chrat · hcart
  • clary ← cclary · clarry · claryy · clayr · cllary · clray · lcary

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chart" for "clary" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃɑɹt/ versus /ˈklɛəɹi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chart" or "clary"?
"chart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,152 in our English list, against #37,855 for "clary". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,374 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chart" and "clary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clack vs clary". 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 #262,374 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