Which to use
“moldy” is an adjective and “moray” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,277
- “moldy” frequency rank
- #28,298
- “moray” frequency rank
- 70575
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | moldy | moray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Covered with mold. | Any of the large cosmopolitan carnivorous eels of the family Muraenidae. |
Where the eye mixes moldy and moray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. moldy (CVCCV) and moray (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between moldy and moray
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: moldy is /ˈmoʊldi/ while moray is /ˈmɒ.ɹeɪ/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
moldy is recorded at frequency rank #42,277, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmoʊldi/. moray is at rank #28,298, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɒ.ɹeɪ/.
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 70575, this pair ranks #50,017 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of moldy vs moray
Shared letters: moy. Private to "moldy": dl. Private to "moray": ar.
"moldy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "moray" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "moldy" and "moray" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "moldy" or "moray" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "moldy" and "moray" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "moldy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "moray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #50,017 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "moldy" and "moray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moldy vs mossy". 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 #50,017 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.