Which to use
“sorry” is an adjective and “soy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #682
- “sorry” frequency rank
- #12,504
- “soy” frequency rank
- 13186
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sorry | soy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Regretful or apologetic for one's actions. | A common East Asian liquid sauce, made by subjecting boiled beans to long fermentation and then long digestion in salt and water. |
Where the eye mixes sorry and soy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sorry and soy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sorry is /ˈsɒɹ.i/ while soy is /sɔɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sorry is recorded at frequency rank #682, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɒɹ.i/. soy is at rank #12,504, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɔɪ/.
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 13186, this pair ranks #477,297 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sorry vs soy
Shared letters: osy. Private to "sorry": r. Private to "soy": -.
"sorry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "soy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- sorry ← osrry · sorryy · sory · soryr · srory · ssorry
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "sorry" and "soy" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "sorry" or "soy"?
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 "sorry" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "soy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #477,297 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sorry" and "soy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sif vs soy". 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 #477,297 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.