cay
/kiː/noun
cay is spelled C-A-Y: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “cay vs key” about 320 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, cay means “A small, low island largely made of sand or coral” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cay is cays or cayes.
How many letters and syllables are in cay?
| Letters | 3: C-A-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 40,267th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is cay?
Cay appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cay?
- /kiː/
- /keɪ/
Cay has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cay.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-cay2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with cay
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with cay?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as cay.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: cya.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of cay
- cays plural
- cayes plural
- key
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cay mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A small, low island largely made of sand or coral.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does cay come from?
] From Spanish cayo, from Taíno.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).