Which to use
“eatery” and “emery” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,900
- “eatery” frequency rank
- #19,583
- “emery” frequency rank
- 57483
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | eatery | emery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A restaurant or café; a place to purchase and eat food. | An impure type of corundum, often used for sanding or polishing. |
Where the eye mixes eatery and emery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between eatery and emery
A purely visual mix-up. eatery (/ˈiːtəɹi/) and emery (/ˈɛməɹi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
eatery is recorded at frequency rank #37,900, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈiːtəɹi/. emery is at rank #19,583, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛməɹi/.
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 57483, this pair ranks #119,009 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of eatery vs emery
Shared letters: ery. Private to "eatery": at. Private to "emery": m.
"eatery" · 6 letters · shape VVCVCV · "emery" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "eatery" for "emery" ever safe?
Frequency check: "eatery" vs "emery" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "eatery" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "emery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #119,009 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "eatery" and "emery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "easterly vs eatery". 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 #119,009 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.