EmmyvsenemyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Emmy is a name, enemy is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Emmy” is a name and “enemy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,684
“Emmy” frequency rank
#2,038
“enemy” frequency rank
12722
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Emmy enemy
Definition A diminutive of Emily, Emma, Emmeline or Amelia, also used as a female given name. Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else.

Letter map: Emmy vs enemy

Shared letters muted; letters that set Emmy and enemy apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Emmy runs 4 letters (VCCV) against enemy's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Emmy
5 ch
enemy

Role in the sentence - Emmy and enemy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Emmy is aname and enemyanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12722, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Emmy is recorded at frequency rank #10,684, classified as aname. 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 12722, this pair ranks #479,907 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Emmy vs enemy

Shared letters: emy. Private to "Emmy": -. Private to "enemy": n.

"Emmy" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "enemy" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Emmy ← emmyy · emy · emym · memy
  • enemy ← eenmy · enemmy · enemyy · eneym · enmey · ennemy · neemy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Emmy" and "enemy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Emmy" is a name and "enemy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Emmy" or "enemy"?
"enemy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,038 in our English list, against #10,684 for "Emmy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Emmy" and "enemy".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Emmy" 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 #479,907 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Emmy" and "enemy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Emin vs Emmy". 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 #479,907 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list