Which to use
“grog” is a noun and “gross” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,236
- “grog” frequency rank
- #3,305
- “gross” frequency rank
- 47541
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grog | gross |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An alcoholic beverage made with rum and water, especially that once issued to sailors of the Royal Navy. | Highly or conspicuously offensive. |
Where the eye mixes grog and gross
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. grog runs 4 letters (CCVC) against gross's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: grog vs gross
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grog is /ɡɹɒɡ/ while gross is /ɡɹəʊs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grog is recorded at frequency rank #44,236, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹɒɡ/. gross is at rank #3,305, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɡɹəʊs/.
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 47541, this pair ranks #201,517 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grog vs gross
Shared letters: gor. Private to "grog": -. Private to "gross": s.
"grog" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "gross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grog" for "gross" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "grog" or "gross" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "grog" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gross" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,517 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grog" and "gross" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grog vs gronk". 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 #201,517 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.