humanityvshumilityConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,162
“humanity” frequency rank
#13,173
“humility” frequency rank
17335
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature humanity humility
Definition Humankind; human beings as a group. The characteristic of being humble; humbleness in character and behavior.

Where the eye mixes humanity and humility

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
humanity
8 ch
humility

Look-alike desk: humanity vs humility

A purely visual mix-up. humanity (/hjuˈmænɪti/) and humility (/hjuːˈmɪlɪti/) 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 17335, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

humanity is recorded at frequency rank #4,162, classified as anoun, pronounced /hjuˈmænɪti/. humility is at rank #13,173, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hjuːˈmɪlɪti/.

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 17335, this pair ranks #452,086 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of humanity vs humility

Shared letters: himtuy. Private to "humanity": an. Private to "humility": l.

"humanity" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "humility" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • humanityhhumanity · hmuanity · huamnity · humainty · humanitty · humanityy · humaniyt · humannity
  • humilityhhumility · hmuility · huimlity · humiilty · humilitty · humilityy · humiliyt · humillity

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "humanity" for "humility" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/hjuˈmænɪti/ versus /hjuːˈmɪlɪti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "humanity" vs "humility" - which ranks higher?
"humanity" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,162 in our English list, against #13,173 for "humility". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "humanity" and "humility" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "humanity" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "humility" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #452,086 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "humanity" and "humility" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "humanely vs humanity". 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 #452,086 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