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Mollie or molly?

mollie is a noun meaning “Any of many New World fish of the genus Poecilia, formerly called Mollienesia…”; molly is a noun meaning “A woman or girl, especially of low status or prostitute”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) molly is about 11 times as common as mollie.

mollieormolly

What is the difference between mollie and molly?

molliemolly
Part of speechnounnoun, verb
Meaning

Any of many New World fish of the genus Poecilia, formerly called Mollienesia; more commonly molly

informalA Molotov cocktail

IrelandA woman or girl, especially of low status or prostitute

A mollemoke

To engage in (male) homosexual activity with

Examplenone recordednone recorded
Formsmolliesmollies
Pronunciation/ˈmɒlɪ/ /ˈmɒli/ /ˈmɑli//ˈmɒli/ /ˈmɑli/ /ˈmɒ.li/
In writingabout once in every 2 million words7.4 times per million words

Sources: mollie and molly 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 mollie and molly

mollie

  1. 1

    noun Any of many New World fish of the genus Poecilia, formerly called Mollienesia; more commonly molly

  2. 2

    noun informalA Molotov cocktail

molly

  1. 1

    noun IrelandA woman or girl, especially of low status or prostitute

  2. 2

    verb To engage in (male) homosexual activity with

  3. 3

    noun A fish of the genus Poecilia, excluding Endler's livebearers and guppies

  4. 4

    noun IndiaAlternative spelling of mali (“a member of a caste in South Asia whose traditional occupation is gardening; hence, any South Asian gardener”)

  5. 5

    noun slangA Molotov cocktail

  6. 6

    noun CanadaUSslangAlternative letter-case form of molly: the crystalline or powdered form of MDMA

  7. 7

    noun slanga male homosexual, especially an effeminate one

  8. 8

    noun A Molly Maguire

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, mollie or molly?

mollie appears about once in every 2 million words; molly 7.4 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words