Which to use
“robber” and “robbery” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,462
- “robber” frequency rank
- #7,493
- “robbery” frequency rank
- 24955
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | robber | robbery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person who robs. | The act or practice of robbing. |
Where the eye mixes robber and robbery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses robber with robbery
A purely visual mix-up. robber (/ˈɹɒb.ə(ɹ)/) and robbery (/ˈɹɒbəɹi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “robber” sits inside “robbery”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24955, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
robber is recorded at frequency rank #17,462, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹɒb.ə(ɹ)/. robbery is at rank #7,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹɒbəɹi/.
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 24955, this pair ranks #398,020 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of robber vs robbery
Shared letters: beor. Private to "robber": -. Private to "robbery": y.
"robber" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "robbery" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "robber" and "robbery" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "robber" or "robbery"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "robber" and "robbery" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "robber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "robbery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,020 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "robber" and "robbery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "robber vs rubbery". 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 #398,020 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.