Which to use
“salary” is a noun and “sultry” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,906
- “salary” frequency rank
- #29,485
- “sultry” frequency rank
- 33391
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | salary | sultry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or autonomy. | Hot and humid; sweltering. |
Where the eye mixes salary and sultry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. salary (CVCVCV) and sultry (CVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between salary and sultry
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: salary is /ˈsæl.ə.ɹi/ while sultry is /ˈsʌltɹi/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
salary is recorded at frequency rank #3,906, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsæl.ə.ɹi/. sultry is at rank #29,485, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsʌltɹi/.
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 33391, this pair ranks #329,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of salary vs sultry
Shared letters: lrsy. Private to "salary": a. Private to "sultry": tu.
"salary" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "sultry" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "salary" and "sultry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "salary" or "sultry"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "salary" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sultry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "salary" and "sultry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sultry vs surry". 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 #329,838 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.