Which to use
“very” is an adverb and “veto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #106
- “very” frequency rank
- #12,165
- “veto” frequency rank
- 12271
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | very | veto |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To a great extent or degree. | A political right to disapprove of (and thereby stop) the process of a decision, a law etc. |
Where the eye mixes very and veto
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: very is /ˈvɛɹi/ while veto is /ˈviːtəʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
very is recorded at frequency rank #106, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈvɛɹi/. veto is at rank #12,165, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈviːtəʊ/.
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 12271, this pair ranks #482,488 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of very vs veto
Shared letters: ev. Private to "very": ry. Private to "veto": ot.
"very" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "veto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV