Which to use
“sorry” is an adjective and “story” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #682
- “sorry” frequency rank
- #341
- “story” frequency rank
- 1023
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sorry | story |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Regretful or apologetic for one's actions. | An account of real or fictional events. |
Where the eye mixes sorry and story
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sorry is /ˈsɒɹ.i/ while story is /ˈstɔː.ɹi/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1023, 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/. story is at rank #341, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈstɔː.ɹi/.
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 1023, this pair ranks #528,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sorry vs story
Shared letters: orsy. Private to "sorry": -. Private to "story": t.
"sorry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "story" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV