Which to use
“petty” is an adjective and “putty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,394
- “petty” frequency rank
- #33,380
- “putty” frequency rank
- 39774
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | petty | putty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having little or no importance. | A form of cement, made from linseed oil and whiting, used to fixate panes of glass. |
Where the eye mixes petty and putty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. petty and putty follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses petty with putty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: petty is /ˈpɛt.i/ while putty is /ˈpʌti/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “petty” becomes u in “putty”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
petty is recorded at frequency rank #6,394, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpɛt.i/. putty is at rank #33,380, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpʌti/.
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 39774, this pair ranks #273,632 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of petty vs putty
Shared letters: pty. Private to "petty": e. Private to "putty": u.
"petty" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "putty" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "petty" and "putty" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "petty" or "putty"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "petty" and "putty" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "petty" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "putty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #273,632 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "petty" and "putty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Petey vs putty". 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 #273,632 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.