condvscornyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,131
“cond” frequency rank
#21,478
“corny” frequency rank
65609
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cond corny
Definition Clipping of conditional. Boring and unoriginal.

Where the eye mixes cond and corny

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cond
5 ch
corny

Visual trap between cond and corny

A purely visual mix-up. cond (/kɒnd/) and corny (/ˈkɔːni/) 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 65609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cond is recorded at frequency rank #44,131, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɒnd/. corny is at rank #21,478, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɔːni/.

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 65609, this pair ranks #71,914 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cond vs corny

Shared letters: cno. Private to "cond": d. Private to "corny": ry.

"cond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "corny" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • condccond · cnod · codn · condd · connd · ocnd
  • cornyccorny · conry · cornny · cornyy · corrny · coryn · ocrny

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cond" and "corny" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɒnd/ versus /ˈkɔːni/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cond" vs "corny" - which ranks higher?
"corny" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,478 in our English list, against #44,131 for "cond". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cond" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corny" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,914 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cond" and "corny" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cond vs cuny". 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 #71,914 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