Which to use
“leather” is a noun and “leathery” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,957
- “leather” frequency rank
- #46,026
- “leathery” frequency rank
- 49983
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leather | leathery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tough material produced from the skin of animals, by tanning or similar process, used e.g. for clothing; often denotes leather from cattle when no qualifier specifies otherwise. | Having the consistency, feel, or texture of leather. |
Where the eye mixes leather and leathery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. leather runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against leathery's 8 (CVVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between leather and leathery
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leather is /ˈlɛðə/ while leathery is /ˈlɛðəɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “leather” sits inside “leathery”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49983, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leather is recorded at frequency rank #3,957, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛðə/. leathery is at rank #46,026, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɛðəɹi/.
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 49983, this pair ranks #178,434 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leather vs leathery
Shared letters: aehlrt. Private to "leather": -. Private to "leathery": y.
"leather" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "leathery" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leather" for "leathery" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "leather" or "leathery" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "leather" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leathery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,434 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leather" and "leathery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lather vs leathery". 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 #178,434 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.