Which to use
“scurvy” and “surly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,435
- “scurvy” frequency rank
- #35,102
- “surly” frequency rank
- 75537
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | scurvy | surly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Affected or covered with scurf (“skin disease causing flakes of skin to fall off”) or scabs; scurfy, scabby; also, of or relating to a skin disease causing scurf or to scurvy (noun noun sense 1). | Irritated, bad-tempered, unfriendly. |
Where the eye mixes scurvy and surly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. scurvy runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against surly's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses scurvy with surly
A purely visual mix-up. scurvy (/ˈskɜːvi/) and surly (/ˈsɜːli/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
scurvy is recorded at frequency rank #40,435, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈskɜːvi/. surly is at rank #35,102, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɜːli/.
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 75537, this pair ranks #32,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of scurvy vs surly
Shared letters: rsuy. Private to "scurvy": cv. Private to "surly": l.
"scurvy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "surly" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "scurvy" for "surly" ever safe?
Which is more common, "scurvy" or "surly"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "scurvy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "surly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #32,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "scurvy" and "surly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scurry vs scurvy". 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 #32,813 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.