Which to use
“clary” and “curry” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,855
- “clary” frequency rank
- #7,550
- “curry” frequency rank
- 45405
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clary | curry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | clary sage (Salvia sclarea) | One of a family of dishes originating from Indian cuisine, flavored by a spiced sauce. |
Where the eye mixes clary and curry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clary (CCVCV) and curry (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between clary and curry
A purely visual mix-up. clary (/ˈklɛəɹi/) and curry (/ˈkʌ.ɹi/) 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 45405, 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/. curry is at rank #7,550, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʌ.ɹi/.
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 45405, this pair ranks #221,546 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clary vs curry
Shared letters: cry. Private to "clary": al. Private to "curry": u.
"clary" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "curry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clary" for "curry" ever safe?
Which is more common, "clary" or "curry"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "clary" and "curry" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "clary" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "curry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #221,546 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clary" and "curry" 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 #221,546 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.