gracevsgravyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“grace” and “gravy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,680
“grace” frequency rank
#15,418
“gravy” frequency rank
18098
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grace gravy
Definition Charming, pleasing qualities. A thick sauce made from the fat or juices that come out from meat or vegetables as they are being cooked.

Where the eye mixes grace and gravy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
grace
5 ch
gravy

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. grace (/ɡɹeɪs/) and gravy (/ˈɡɹeɪvi/) 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 18098, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grace is recorded at frequency rank #2,680, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹeɪs/. gravy is at rank #15,418, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡɹeɪvi/.

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 18098, this pair ranks #447,128 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of grace vs gravy

Shared letters: agr. Private to "grace": ce. Private to "gravy": vy.

"grace" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "gravy" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gracegarce · ggrace · gracce · graec · grcae · grrace · rgace
  • gravygarvy · ggravy · gravvy · gravyy · grayv · grravy · grvay · rgavy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grace" and "gravy" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɡɹeɪs/ versus /ˈɡɹeɪvi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "grace" or "gravy"?
"grace" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,680 in our English list, against #15,418 for "gravy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list