caddy
/ˈkædi/
"caddy" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“caddy” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #30,351 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #30,351
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small box or tin (can) with a lid for holding dried tea leaves used to brew tea.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | caddy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkædi/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #30,351 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “caddy” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for caddy is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkædi/. Corpus data places it at rank #30,351 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for caddy, with forms such as "acddy", "caddyy", and "cady". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cay", "card", "Cody", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: An alteration of catty (“(unit of) weight used in China, equivalent to 1⅓ pounds avoirdupois (about 0.605 kilograms)”), borrowed from Malay kati (“weight used in China, Indonesia, and Japan”), from Tamil கட்டி (kaṭṭi, “measure of weight; clod, lump”), from … The correct English form is caddy, spelled C-A-D-D-Y.
Definition
- 1A small box or tin (can) with a lid for holding dried tea leaves used to brew tea.
- 2A (usually small) box, chest, or tin with a lid, and often with partitions, used to keep things in.
- 3A small lidded bin for food waste.
- 4A movable tray or other mechanism for holding (sometimes within a piece of equipment or machinery), securing, and transporting a removable component.
- 5A lightweight wheeled cart; specifically, one attached to a bicycle as a conveyance for a child, or pulled by hand and used to transport groceries away from a shop.
Etymology
An alteration of catty (“(unit of) weight used in China, equivalent to 1⅓ pounds avoirdupois (about 0.605 kilograms)”), borrowed from Malay kati (“weight used in China, Indonesia, and Japan”), from Tamil கட்டி (kaṭṭi, “measure of weight; clod, lump”), from கட்டு (kaṭṭu, “to coagulate, congeal, or consolidate (into a concretion); to harden”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acddy,caddyy,cady,cadyd,ccaddy,cdady
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of caddy - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “caddy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-D-D-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkædi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cay” - see the side-by-side comparison. caddy vs cay
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.