Which to use
“obey” is a verb and “oily” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,219
- “obey” frequency rank
- #18,380
- “oily” frequency rank
- 27599
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obey | oily |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To do as ordered by (a person, institution etc), to act according to the bidding of. | Covered with or containing oil. |
Where the eye mixes obey and oily
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: obey is /əʊˈbeɪ/ while oily is /ˈɔɪli/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obey is recorded at frequency rank #9,219, classified as averb, pronounced /əʊˈbeɪ/. oily is at rank #18,380, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɔɪli/.
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 27599, this pair ranks #377,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of obey vs oily
Shared letters: oy. Private to "obey": be. Private to "oily": il.
"obey" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "oily" · 4 letters · shape VVCV