Which to use
“lay” is a verb and “leary” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,302
- “lay” frequency rank
- #34,564
- “leary” frequency rank
- 36866
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lay | leary |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To place down in a position of rest, or in a horizontal position. | Alternative spelling of leery. |
Letter map: lay vs leary
Shared letters muted; letters that set lay and leary apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for lay / leary
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lay is averb and learyanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lay is recorded at frequency rank #2,302, classified as averb, pronounced /leɪ/. leary is at rank #34,564, tagged as anadj.
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 36866, this pair ranks #299,459 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lay vs leary
Shared letters: aly. Private to "lay": -. Private to "leary": er.
"lay" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "leary" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- leary ← elary · laery · learry · learyy · leayr · leray · lleary
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lay" and "leary" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "lay" or "leary" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lay" and "leary".
- Full dictionary entry for "lay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #299,459 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lay" and "leary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leary vs leery". 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 #299,459 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.