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Rubi or ruby?

rubi is a noun meaning “Alternative form of ruby (“pronunciation guide for Chinese or Japanese…”; ruby is a noun meaning “A clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) ruby is about 69 times as common as rubi.

rubiorruby

What is the difference between rubi and ruby?

rubiruby
Part of speechnounnoun, adjective, verb
Meaning

Alternative form of ruby (“pronunciation guide for Chinese or Japanese characters”)

A clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone

A deep red colour

Of a deep, red color; ruby-red

Examplenone recordedWe're going down the Indian for a Ruby; wanna join us?
Formsnonerubies
Pronunciationnot recorded/ˈɹuː.bi/
In writingabout once in every 7 million words9.5 times per million words

Sources: rubi and ruby 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 rubi and ruby

rubi

  1. 1

    noun Alternative form of ruby (“pronunciation guide for Chinese or Japanese characters”)

ruby

  1. 1

    noun A clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone

  2. 2

    adjective Of a deep, red color; ruby-red

  3. 3

    verb To make red; to redden

  4. 4

    noun slangAlternative letter-case form of Ruby (“curry”)

  5. 5

    noun slangA curry; ellipsis of Ruby Murray

    We're going down the Indian for a Ruby; wanna join us?

  6. 6

    noun A deep red colour

  7. 7

    noun The tincture red or gules

  8. 8

    noun A ruby hummer, a South American hummingbird, Clytolaema rubricauda

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, rubi or ruby?

rubi appears about once in every 7 million words; ruby 9.5 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words