Which to use
“emery” and “enemy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,583
- “emery” frequency rank
- #2,038
- “enemy” frequency rank
- 21621
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | emery | enemy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An impure type of corundum, often used for sanding or polishing. | Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else. |
Where the eye mixes emery and enemy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. emery and enemy follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: emery vs enemy
A purely visual mix-up. emery (/ˈɛməɹi/) and enemy (/ˈɛn.ə.mi/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
emery is recorded at frequency rank #19,583, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛməɹi/. enemy is at rank #2,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛn.ə.mi/.
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 21621, this pair ranks #422,569 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of emery vs enemy
Shared letters: emy. Private to "emery": r. Private to "enemy": n.
"emery" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "enemy" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "emery" for "enemy" ever safe?
Which is more common, "emery" or "enemy"?
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 "emery" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enemy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,569 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "emery" and "enemy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elegy vs emery". 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 #422,569 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.