Which to use
“marry” is a verb and “mercy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,637
- “marry” frequency rank
- #4,691
- “mercy” frequency rank
- 8328
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marry | mercy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To enter into the conjugal or connubial state; to take a husband or a wife. | Relenting; forbearance to cause or allow harm to another. |
Where the eye mixes marry and mercy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marry is /ˈmæɹ.ɪ/ while mercy is /ˈmɜːsi/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8328, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marry is recorded at frequency rank #3,637, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈmæɹ.ɪ/. mercy is at rank #4,691, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɜːsi/.
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 8328, this pair ranks #503,056 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of marry vs mercy
Shared letters: mry. Private to "marry": a. Private to "mercy": ce.
"marry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "mercy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV