Which to use
“touch” is a verb and “touchy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,324
- “touch” frequency rank
- #24,340
- “touchy” frequency rank
- 25664
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | touch | touchy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Primarily physical senses. | Extremely sensitive or volatile; easily disturbed to the point of becoming unstable; requiring caution or tactfulness. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set touch and touchy apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
touch and touchy form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “touch” sits inside “touchy” - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25664, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
touch is recorded at frequency rank #1,324, classified as averb, pronounced /tʌt͡ʃ/. touchy is at rank #24,340, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈtʌt͡ʃi/.
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 25664, this pair ranks #392,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "touch" and "touchy" be used interchangeably?
Remembering touch vs touchy
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “touch”; for an adjective, it's “touchy”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “touch” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable