groundvsgrundyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#735
“ground” frequency rank
#35,319
“grundy” frequency rank
36054
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ground grundy
Definition The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground. A narrow-minded person or group that is overly concerned with censoring or criticizing personal conduct.

Where the eye mixes ground and grundy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ground (CCVVCC) and grundy (CCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
ground
6 ch
grundy

Visual trap between ground and grundy

A purely visual mix-up. ground (/ɡɹaʊnd/) and grundy (/ˈɡɹʌn.di/) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36054, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ground is recorded at frequency rank #735, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹaʊnd/. 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 36054, this pair ranks #306,569 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ground vs grundy

Shared letters: dgnru. Private to "ground": o. Private to "grundy": y.

"ground" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC  ·  "grundy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ground ← gground · gorund · gronud · groudn · groundd · grounnd · grround · gruond
  • grundy ← ggrundy · grnudy · grrundy · grudny · grunddy · grundyy · grunndy · grunyd

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ground" and "grundy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɡɹaʊnd/ versus /ˈɡɹʌn.di/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ground" vs "grundy" - which ranks higher?
"ground" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #735 in our English list, against #35,319 for "grundy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ground" 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 #306,569 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ground" and "grundy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grubby vs grundy". 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 #306,569 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