Which to use
“corky” and “coy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,156
- “corky” frequency rank
- #25,336
- “coy” frequency rank
- 73492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | corky | coy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of wine, contaminated by a faulty or tainted cork. | Bashful, shy, retiring. |
Letter map: corky vs coy
Shared letters muted; letters that set corky and coy apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. corky runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against coy's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Corpus notes: corky and coy
corky and coy are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
corky is recorded at frequency rank #48,156, classified as anadj. coy is at rank #25,336, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɔɪ/.
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 73492, this pair ranks #39,414 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of corky vs coy
Shared letters: coy. Private to "corky": kr. Private to "coy": -.
"corky" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "coy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- corky ← ccorky · cokry · corkky · corkyy · corrky · coryk · croky · ocrky
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "corky" for "coy" ever safe?
Which is more common, "corky" or "coy"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "corky" and "coy".
- Full dictionary entry for "corky" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #39,414 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "corky" and "coy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "corker vs corky". 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 #39,414 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.