Which to use
“ember” and “emery” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,019
- “ember” frequency rank
- #19,583
- “emery” frequency rank
- 49602
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ember | emery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A piece of coal or wood glowing by heat; a hot coal. | An impure type of corundum, often used for sanding or polishing. |
Where the eye mixes ember and emery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ember (VCCVC) and emery (VCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses ember with emery
A purely visual mix-up. ember (/ˈɛm.bə/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ember is recorded at frequency rank #30,019, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛm.bə/. 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 49602, this pair ranks #182,045 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ember vs emery
Shared letters: emr. Private to "ember": b. Private to "emery": y.
"ember" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "emery" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ember" for "emery" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ember" or "emery"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ember" 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 #182,045 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ember" and "emery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Eben vs ember". 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 #182,045 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.