Which to use
“difficult” is an adjective and “difficulty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #903
- “difficult” frequency rank
- #4,078
- “difficulty” frequency rank
- 4981
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | difficult | difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Hard, not easy, requiring much effort. | The state of being difficult, or hard to do. |
Where the eye mixes difficult and difficulty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses difficult with difficulty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: difficult is /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/ while difficulty is /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “difficult” sits inside “difficulty”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
difficult is recorded at frequency rank #903, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɪfɪkəlt/. difficulty is at rank #4,078, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈdɪfɪkəlti/.
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 4981, this pair ranks #517,007 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of difficult vs difficulty
Shared letters: cdfiltu. Private to "difficult": -. Private to "difficulty": y.
"difficult" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC · "difficulty" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- difficult ← ddifficult · dfificult · diffciult · difficcult · difficlut · difficullt · difficultt · difficutl
- difficulty ← ddifficulty · dfificulty · diffciulty · difficculty · difficluty · difficullty · difficultty · difficultyy
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "difficult" and "difficulty" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "difficult" or "difficulty" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "difficult" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "difficulty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #517,007 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #517,007 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.