Which to use
“legality” is a noun and “legalize” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,886
- “legality” frequency rank
- #20,688
- “legalize” frequency rank
- 38574
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | legality | legalize |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lawfulness. | To make legal or permit under law. Either by decriminalising something that has been illegal or by specifically permitting it. |
Where the eye mixes legality and legalize
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. legality and legalize follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between legality and legalize
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: legality is /liˈɡælɪti/ while legalize is /ˈliːɡəlaɪz/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
legality is recorded at frequency rank #17,886, classified as anoun, pronounced /liˈɡælɪti/. legalize is at rank #20,688, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈliːɡəlaɪz/.
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 38574, this pair ranks #284,689 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of legality vs legalize
Shared letters: aegil. Private to "legality": ty. Private to "legalize": z.
"legality" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "legalize" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "legality" and "legalize" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "legality" vs "legalize" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "legality" and "legalize" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "legality" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "legalize" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #284,689 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "legality" and "legalize" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "legality vs locality". 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 #284,689 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.