Paddy or patty?
paddy is a noun meaning “Rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested”; patty is a noun meaning “A flattened portion of ground meat or a vegetarian equivalent, usually round…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) paddy is about as common as patty.
What is the difference between paddy and patty?
| paddy | patty | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective | noun, adjective |
| Meaning | Rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested A paddy field, a rice paddy; an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown A fit of temper; a tantrum | AustraliaUSA flattened portion of ground meat or a vegetarian equivalent, usually round but sometimes square in shape A pastry with various fillings and spices baked inside a flaky shell, often tinted golden yellow with an egg yolk mixture or turmeric |
| Example | throw a paddy etc | The cook fried the hamburger patty, then put it in a bun |
| Forms | paddies | patties |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpædi/ [ˈpʰæɾi] | /ˈpæti/ |
| In writing | 4.2 times per million words | 3.8 times per million words |
Sources: paddy and patty 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 paddy and patty
paddy
- 1
Rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested
- 2
A fit of temper; a tantrum
throw a paddy etc
- 3
A snowy sheathbill
- 4
offensiveslangAn Irish person
- 5
A paddy field, a rice paddy; an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown
- 6
slangA white person
- 7
colloquialA labourer's assistant or workmate
- 8
A drill used in boring wells, with cutters that expand on pressure
patty
- 1
AustraliaUSA flattened portion of ground meat or a vegetarian equivalent, usually round but sometimes square in shape
The cook fried the hamburger patty, then put it in a bun
- 2
Alternative form of patté
a cross patty
- 3
A pastry with various fillings and spices baked inside a flaky shell, often tinted golden yellow with an egg yolk mixture or turmeric
- 4
A foolish or stupid person
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, paddy or patty?
paddy appears 4.2 times per million words; patty 3.8 times per million words.
paddy 4.2 times per million wordspatty 3.8 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search paddy vs patty?
“paddy vs patty” is searched about 260 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“patty vs paddy”, “paddy or patty”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.