clary vs cray, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#37,855
“clary” frequency rank: #28,500
“cray” frequency rank: 66355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	clary	cray
Definition	clary sage (Salvia sclarea)	A crayfish or lobster.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set clary and cray apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

clary

4 ch

cray

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. clary (/ˈklɛəɹi/) and cray (/kɹæɪ/) 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 66355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clary is recorded at frequency rank #37,855, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈklɛəɹi/. cray is at rank #28,500, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæɪ/.

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 66355, this pair ranks #68,397 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clary vs cray

Shared letters: acry. Private to "clary": l. Private to "cray": -.

"clary" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "cray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

clary ← cclary · clarry · claryy · clayr · cllary · clray · lcary
cray ← ccray · crayy · crray · crya · rcay

Frequency comparison

clary#37,855

cray#28,500

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clary" and "cray" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ˈklɛəɹi/ versus /kɹæɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "clary" or "cray"?

"cray" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,500 in our English list, against #37,855 for "clary". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering clary vs cray

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “clary” entry
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