Which to use
“gravy” is a noun and “grimy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,418
- “gravy” frequency rank
- #38,870
- “grimy” frequency rank
- 54288
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gravy | grimy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A thick sauce made from the fat or juices that come out from meat or vegetables as they are being cooked. | Stained or covered with grime. |
Where the eye mixes gravy and grimy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gravy and grimy follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: gravy vs grimy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gravy is /ˈɡɹeɪvi/ while grimy is /ˈɡɹaɪmi/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gravy is recorded at frequency rank #15,418, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡɹeɪvi/. grimy is at rank #38,870, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡɹaɪmi/.
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 54288, this pair ranks #142,248 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gravy vs grimy
Shared letters: gry. Private to "gravy": av. Private to "grimy": im.
"gravy" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "grimy" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gravy" and "grimy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "gravy" or "grimy" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "gravy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grimy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #142,248 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gravy" and "grimy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grimly vs grimy". 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 #142,248 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.