Which to use
“delicacy” is a noun and “delicate” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,945
- “delicacy” frequency rank
- #7,003
- “delicate” frequency rank
- 29948
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | delicacy | delicate |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The quality of being delicate. | Easily damaged or requiring careful handling. |
Where the eye mixes delicacy and delicate
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: delicacy vs delicate
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: delicacy is /ˈdɛlɪkəsi/ while delicate is /ˈdɛl.ɪ.kət/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29948, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
delicacy is recorded at frequency rank #22,945, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɛlɪkəsi/. delicate is at rank #7,003, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɛl.ɪ.kət/.
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 29948, this pair ranks #358,683 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of delicacy vs delicate
Shared letters: acdeil. Private to "delicacy": y. Private to "delicate": t.
"delicacy" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "delicate" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "delicacy" for "delicate" ever safe?
Which is more common, "delicacy" or "delicate"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "delicacy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "delicate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #358,683 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "delicacy" and "delicate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delicate vs delineate". 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 #358,683 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.