Which to use
“speeds” is a noun and “speedy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,625
- “speeds” frequency rank
- #12,144
- “speedy” frequency rank
- 18769
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | speeds | speedy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of speed | Proceeding with or characterized by high speed; rapid. |
Letter map: speeds vs speedy
Shared letters muted; letters that set speeds and speedy apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. speeds (CCVVCC) and speedy (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Role in the sentence - speeds and speedy
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: speeds is anoun and speedyanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - s in “speeds” becomes y in “speedy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18769, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
speeds is recorded at frequency rank #6,625, classified as anoun. speedy is at rank #12,144, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈspiː.di/.
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 18769, this pair ranks #442,653 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of speeds vs speedy
Shared letters: deps. Private to "speeds": -. Private to "speedy": y.
"speeds" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC · "speedy" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "speeds" and "speedy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "speeds" vs "speedy" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've compared "speeds" and "speedy". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "speeds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "speedy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #442,653 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "speeds" and "speedy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "speedy vs sweety". 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 #442,653 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.