Which to use
“decoy” and “delay” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,424
- “decoy” frequency rank
- #3,618
- “delay” frequency rank
- 31042
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | decoy | delay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person or object meant to lure somebody into danger. | A period of time before an event occurs; the act of delaying; procrastination; lingering inactivity. |
Where the eye mixes decoy and delay
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between decoy and delay
A purely visual mix-up. decoy (/ˈdiːkɔɪ/) and delay (/dɪˈleɪ/) 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 31042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
decoy is recorded at frequency rank #27,424, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdiːkɔɪ/. delay is at rank #3,618, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈleɪ/.
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 31042, this pair ranks #349,522 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of decoy vs delay
Shared letters: dey. Private to "decoy": co. Private to "delay": al.
"decoy" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "delay" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "decoy" and "delay" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "decoy" or "delay"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "decoy" and "delay" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "decoy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "delay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #349,522 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "decoy" and "delay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "decoy vs decry". 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 #349,522 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.