Which to use
“gully” is a noun and “gummy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,079
- “gully” frequency rank
- #30,074
- “gummy” frequency rank
- 55153
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gully | gummy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A trench, ravine or narrow channel which was worn by water flow, especially on a hillside. | Showing the gums. |
Where the eye mixes gully and gummy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gully and gummy follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses gully with gummy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gully is /ˈɡʌli/ while gummy is /ˈɡʌmi/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gully is recorded at frequency rank #25,079, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɡʌli/. gummy is at rank #30,074, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡʌmi/.
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 55153, this pair ranks #135,805 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gully vs gummy
Shared letters: guy. Private to "gully": l. Private to "gummy": m.
"gully" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "gummy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gully" for "gummy" ever safe?
Frequency check: "gully" vs "gummy" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "gully" and "gummy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gully" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gummy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #135,805 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gully" and "gummy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gummy 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 #135,805 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.