uglyvsUtleyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ugly is a adjective, Utley is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ugly” is an adjective and “Utley” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,535
“ugly” frequency rank
#45,152
“Utley” frequency rank
48687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ugly Utley
Definition Displeasing to the eye; aesthetically unpleasing. A placename

Letter map: ugly vs Utley

Shared letters muted; letters that set ugly and Utley apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
ugly
5 ch
Utley

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ugly is anadjective and Utleyaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ugly is recorded at frequency rank #3,535, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈʌɡli/. Utley is at rank #45,152, tagged as aname.

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 48687, this pair ranks #190,694 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ugly vs Utley

Shared letters: luy. Private to "ugly": g. Private to "Utley": et.

"ugly" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "Utley" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • uglyguly · uggly · uglly · uglyy · ugyl · ulgy
  • Utleytuley · ultey · utely · utleyy · utlley · utlye · uttley

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ugly" and "Utley" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ugly" is an adjective and "Utley" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ugly" or "Utley"?
"ugly" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,535 in our English list, against #45,152 for "Utley". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list