Drier or dryer?
drier is a noun meaning “Alternative spelling of dryer”; dryer is a noun meaning “One who, or that which, dries; any device or facility employed to remove water…”. Wiktionary gives them as spellings of the same word. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) dryer is about 2.2 times as common as drier.
What is the difference between drier and dryer?
| drier | dryer | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective | noun, adjective |
| Meaning | CanadaUKAlternative spelling of dryer | One who, or that which, dries; any device or facility employed to remove water or humidity, e.g. a desiccative A catalyst used to promote the drying of paints and varnishes by oxidative crosslinking |
| Example | none recorded | The sun and a northwesterly wind are great driers of the earth |
| Forms | driers | dryers |
| Pronunciation | /ˈdɹaɪɚ/ [ˈdɹaɪɚ] [ˈd͡ʒɹaɪɚ] | /ˈdɹaɪɚ/ [ˈdɹaɪɚ] [ˈd͡ʒɹaɪɚ] |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words | 3.5 times per million words |
Sources: drier and dryer in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of drier and dryer
drier
- 1
CanadaUKAlternative spelling of dryer
dryer
- 1
One who, or that which, dries; any device or facility employed to remove water or humidity, e.g. a desiccative
The sun and a northwesterly wind are great driers of the earth
- 2
Short for clothes dryer, tumble dryer
- 3
A catalyst used to promote the drying of paints and varnishes by oxidative crosslinking
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, drier or dryer?
drier appears 1.5 times per million words; dryer 3.5 times per million words.
drier 1.5 times per million wordsdryer 3.5 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search drier vs dryer?
“drier vs dryer” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 230 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“dryer vs drier”, “drier or dryer”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.