Mary or merry?
mary is a noun meaning “Alternative letter-case form of Mary (“male homosexual”)”; merry is a noun meaning “An English wild cherry”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) mary is about 8.9 times as common as merry.
What is the difference between mary and merry?
| mary | merry | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, interjection | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Alternative letter-case form of Mary (“male homosexual”) Alternative form of marry (“indeed, in truth”) | Jolly and full of high spirits; happy Festive and full of fun and laughter An English wild cherry |
| Example | none recorded | We had a very merry Christmas |
| Forms | marys | merries |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmɛɚ.i/ /ˈmɛɹ.i/ | /ˈmɛ.ɹi/ /ˈmɛ(ə)ɹ.i/ |
| In writing | 60 times per million words | 6.8 times per million words |
Sources: mary and merry in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of mary and merry
mary
- 1
Alternative letter-case form of Mary (“male homosexual”)
- 2
Alternative form of marry (“indeed, in truth”)
merry
- 1
Jolly and full of high spirits; happy
We had a very merry Christmas
- 2
An English wild cherry
- 3
Festive and full of fun and laughter
Everyone was merry at the party
- 4
Brisk
The play moved along at a merry pace
- 5
Causing laughter, mirth, gladness, or delight
a merry jest
- 6
Drunk; tipsy
Some of us got a little merry at the office Christmas party
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, mary or merry?
mary appears 60 times per million words; merry 6.8 times per million words.
mary 60 times per million wordsmerry 6.8 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).