# hydroxy vs hydroxyl

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### hydroxy
*adjective · frequency rank #40,288*
Being, or containing a hydroxyl radical.

### hydroxyl
*noun · frequency rank #42,190*
A univalent radical or functional group (–OH) in organic chemistry; present in alcohols, phenols, carboxylic acids and certain other classes of compounds.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hydroxy-vs-hydroxyl