frothvsfrothyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: froth is a noun, frothy is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“froth” is a noun and “frothy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,329
“froth” frequency rank
#45,381
“frothy” frequency rank
84710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature froth frothy
Definition Foam. Foamy or churned to the point of becoming infused with bubbles.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set froth and frothy apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
froth
6 ch
frothy

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: froth is anoun and frothyanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “froth” sits inside “frothy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

froth is recorded at frequency rank #39,329, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɹɒθ/. frothy is at rank #45,381, tagged as anadj.

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 84710, this pair ranks #11,595 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of froth vs frothy

Shared letters: fhort. Private to "froth": -. Private to "frothy": y.

"froth" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "frothy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frothffroth · froht · frothh · frotth · frroth · frtoh · rfoth
  • frothyffrothy · forthy · frohty · frothhy · frothyy · frotthy · frotyh · frrothy

Frequency comparison

froth#39,329
frothy#45,381

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "froth" and "frothy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "froth" is a noun and "frothy" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "froth" or "frothy"?
"froth" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,329 in our English list, against #45,381 for "frothy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering froth vs frothy

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “froth”; for an adjective, it's “frothy”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “froth” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list