Which to use
“Leahy” is a name and “leery” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,708
- “Leahy” frequency rank
- #48,321
- “leery” frequency rank
- 82029
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Leahy | leery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname from Irish. | Cautious, suspicious, wary, hesitant, or nervous about something; having reservations or concerns. |
Where the eye mixes Leahy and leery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Leahy and leery follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: Leahy vs leery
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Leahy is /ˈliːhi/ while leery is /ˈlɪəɹi/. 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 (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Leahy is recorded at frequency rank #33,708, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈliːhi/. leery is at rank #48,321, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɪəɹi/.
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 82029, this pair ranks #16,540 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Leahy vs leery
Shared letters: ely. Private to "Leahy": ah. Private to "leery": r.
"Leahy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "leery" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Leahy" and "leery" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "Leahy" vs "leery" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Leahy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,540 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Leahy" and "leery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leery vs lepers". 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 #16,540 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.