Which to use
“crony” and “cuny” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,192
- “crony” frequency rank
- #49,272
- “cuny” frequency rank
- 89464
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crony | cuny |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A close friend. | An ordinary seaman. |
Letter map: crony vs cuny
Shared letters muted; letters that set crony and cuny apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. crony runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against cuny's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Corpus notes: crony and cuny
crony and cuny 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crony is recorded at frequency rank #40,192, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹoʊni/. cuny is at rank #49,272, tagged as anoun.
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 89464, this pair ranks #5,161 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crony vs cuny
Shared letters: cny. Private to "crony": or. Private to "cuny": u.
"crony" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "cuny" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crony" and "cuny" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "crony" or "cuny"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "crony" and "cuny".
- Full dictionary entry for "crony" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cuny" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #5,161 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crony" and "cuny" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cubby 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 #5,161 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.