Which to use
“greasy” and “greedy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,036
- “greasy” frequency rank
- #10,376
- “greedy” frequency rank
- 26412
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | greasy | greedy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a slippery surface; having a surface covered with grease. | Having greed; consumed by selfish desires. |
Where the eye mixes greasy and greedy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. greasy and greedy follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses greasy with greedy
A purely visual mix-up. greasy (/ˈɡɹi.si/) and greedy (/ˈɡɹiːdi/) 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 26412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
greasy is recorded at frequency rank #16,036, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡɹi.si/. greedy is at rank #10,376, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡɹiːdi/.
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 26412, this pair ranks #386,887 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of greasy vs greedy
Shared letters: egry. Private to "greasy": as. Private to "greedy": d.
"greasy" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "greedy" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "greasy" for "greedy" ever safe?
Which is more common, "greasy" or "greedy"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "greasy" and "greedy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "greasy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "greedy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #386,887 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "greasy" and "greedy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Geary vs greasy". 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 #386,887 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.