Which to use
“enemy” is a noun and “enjoy” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,038
- “enemy” frequency rank
- #848
- “enjoy” frequency rank
- 2886
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | enemy | enjoy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Someone who is hostile to, feels hatred towards, opposes the interests of, or intends injury to someone else. | To receive pleasure or satisfaction from something. |
Where the eye mixes enemy and enjoy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: enemy vs enjoy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enemy is /ˈɛn.ə.mi/ while enjoy is /ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2886, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
enemy is recorded at frequency rank #2,038, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛn.ə.mi/. enjoy is at rank #848, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɛnˈd͡ʒɔɪ/.
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 2886, this pair ranks #523,745 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of enemy vs enjoy
Shared letters: eny. Private to "enemy": m. Private to "enjoy": jo.
"enemy" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "enjoy" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "enemy" and "enjoy" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "enemy" vs "enjoy" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "enemy" and "enjoy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "enemy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enjoy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #523,745 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "enemy" and "enjoy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enjoy vs Enos". 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 #523,745 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.