muddvsmuddyConfusable pair

Quick tell: mudd is a noun, muddy is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“mudd” is a noun and “muddy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,367
“mudd” frequency rank
#13,022
“muddy” frequency rank
61389
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mudd muddy
Definition Obsolete spelling of mud. Covered or splashed with, or full of, mud (“wet soil”).

Letter map: mudd vs muddy

Shared letters muted; letters that set mudd and muddy apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
mudd
5 ch
muddy

Grammar separator: mudd vs muddy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mudd is anoun and muddyanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mudd” sits inside “muddy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61389, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mudd is recorded at frequency rank #48,367, classified as anoun. muddy is at rank #13,022, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmʌdi/.

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 61389, this pair ranks #94,601 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mudd vs muddy

Shared letters: dmu. Private to "mudd": -. Private to "muddy": y.

"mudd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "muddy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • muddmdud · mmudd · umdd
  • muddymdudy · mmuddy · muddyy · mudy · mudyd · umddy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mudd" and "muddy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mudd" is a noun and "muddy" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mudd" or "muddy"?
"muddy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,022 in our English list, against #48,367 for "mudd". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "mudd" and "muddy".

  • Full dictionary entry for "mudd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muddy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #94,601 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mudd" and "muddy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muda vs mudd". 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 #94,601 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list