Which to use
“sully” is a verb and “sultry” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,227
- “sully” frequency rank
- #29,485
- “sultry” frequency rank
- 54712
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sully | sultry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To soil or stain; to dirty. | Hot and humid; sweltering. |
Where the eye mixes sully and sultry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sully runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against sultry's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between sully and sultry
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sully is /ˈsʌli/ while sultry is /ˈsʌltɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sully is recorded at frequency rank #25,227, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsʌli/. 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 54712, this pair ranks #138,977 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sully vs sultry
Shared letters: lsuy. Private to "sully": -. Private to "sultry": rt.
"sully" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "sultry" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sully" and "sultry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sully" or "sultry"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "sully" 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 #138,977 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sully" 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 #138,977 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.