Which to use
“guild” and “gully” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,923
- “guild” frequency rank
- #25,079
- “gully” frequency rank
- 33002
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | guild | gully |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A group or association mainly of tradespeople made up of merchants, craftspeople, or artisans, particularly in the Middle Ages, established to oversee and protect their specific commercial interests and to provide mutual aid. | A trench, ravine or narrow channel which was worn by water flow, especially on a hillside. |
Where the eye mixes guild and gully
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between guild and gully
A purely visual mix-up. guild (/ɡɪld/) and gully (/ˈɡʌli/) 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 33002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
guild is recorded at frequency rank #7,923, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɪld/. gully is at rank #25,079, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡʌli/.
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 33002, this pair ranks #333,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of guild vs gully
Shared letters: glu. Private to "guild": di. Private to "gully": y.
"guild" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "gully" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "guild" for "gully" ever safe?
Which is more common, "guild" or "gully"?
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 "guild" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gully" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #333,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "guild" and "gully" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gully vs gusty". 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 #333,074 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.