Which to use
“pulley” is a noun and “Putney” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,139
- “pulley” frequency rank
- #43,867
- “Putney” frequency rank
- 76006
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pulley | Putney |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | One of the simple machines; a sheave, a wheel with a grooved rim, in which a pulled rope or chain lifts an object (more useful when two or more pulleys are used together, as in a block and tackle arrangement, such that a small force moving through a greater distance can exert a larger force through a smaller distance). | A surname. |
Where the eye mixes pulley and Putney
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pulley and Putney follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: pulley vs Putney
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pulley is /ˈpʊli/ while Putney is /ˈpʌtni/. 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 (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pulley is recorded at frequency rank #32,139, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpʊli/. Putney is at rank #43,867, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈpʌtni/.
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 76006, this pair ranks #31,369 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pulley vs Putney
Shared letters: epuy. Private to "pulley": l. Private to "Putney": nt.
"pulley" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "Putney" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pulley" for "Putney" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "pulley" or "Putney" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pulley" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Putney" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #31,369 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pulley" and "Putney" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Petey vs Putney". 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 #31,369 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.