grindsvsgrundyTell them apart

Quick tell: grinds is a verb, grundy is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“grinds” is a verb and “grundy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,828
“grinds” frequency rank
#35,319
“grundy” frequency rank
68147
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grinds grundy
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of grind A narrow-minded person or group that is overly concerned with censoring or criticizing personal conduct.

Where the eye mixes grinds and grundy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. grinds (CCVCCC) and grundy (CCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
grinds
6 ch
grundy

Visual trap between grinds and grundy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grinds is /ɡɹaɪndz/ while grundy is /ˈɡɹʌn.di/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grinds is recorded at frequency rank #32,828, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡɹaɪndz/. grundy is at rank #35,319, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡɹʌn.di/.

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 68147, this pair ranks #60,236 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of grinds vs grundy

Shared letters: dgnr. Private to "grinds": is. Private to "grundy": uy.

"grinds" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "grundy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grinds ← ggrinds · girnds · gridns · grindds · grindss · grinnds · grinsd · grnids
  • grundy ← ggrundy · grnudy · grrundy · grudny · grunddy · grundyy · grunndy · grunyd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grinds" and "grundy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grinds" is a verb and "grundy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "grinds" or "grundy"?
"grinds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,828 in our English list, against #35,319 for "grundy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "grinds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grundy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,236 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grinds" and "grundy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grinds vs gringo". 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 #60,236 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list