Which to use
“thirst” is a noun and “thirsty” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,343
- “thirst” frequency rank
- #10,623
- “thirsty” frequency rank
- 22966
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thirst | thirsty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A sensation of dryness in the throat associated with a craving for liquids, produced by deprivation of drink, or by some other cause (such as fear, excitement, etc.) which stops the secretion of the pharyngeal mucous membrane. | Needing to drink water or any liquid that can supply water. |
Where the eye mixes thirst and thirsty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: thirst vs thirsty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thirst is /θɜːst/ while thirsty is /ˈθɝs.ti/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “thirst” sits inside “thirsty”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thirst is recorded at frequency rank #12,343, classified as anoun, pronounced /θɜːst/. thirsty is at rank #10,623, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈθɝs.ti/.
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 22966, this pair ranks #412,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of thirst vs thirsty
Shared letters: hirst. Private to "thirst": -. Private to "thirsty": y.
"thirst" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "thirsty" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "thirst" and "thirsty" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "thirst" or "thirsty" show up more?
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 "thirst" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thirsty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #412,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thirst" and "thirsty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thirsty vs twisty". 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 #412,730 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.