Which to use
“gully” is a noun and “gutsy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,079
- “gully” frequency rank
- #40,272
- “gutsy” frequency rank
- 65351
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gully | gutsy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A trench, ravine or narrow channel which was worn by water flow, especially on a hillside. | Marked by courage, determination or boldness in the face of difficulties or danger; having guts. |
Where the eye mixes gully and gutsy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gully and gutsy 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 gutsy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gully is /ˈɡʌli/ while gutsy is /ˈɡʌt.si/. 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 65351, 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/. gutsy is at rank #40,272, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡʌt.si/.
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 65351, this pair ranks #73,188 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gully vs gutsy
Shared letters: guy. Private to "gully": l. Private to "gutsy": st.
"gully" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "gutsy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "gully" and "gutsy" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "gully" or "gutsy"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "gully" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gutsy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #73,188 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gully" and "gutsy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gusty vs gutsy". 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 #73,188 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.