Mary
/ˈmɛə.ɹi/
"mary" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“Mary” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,730 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #1,730
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A female given name from Aramaic or Hebrew.
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 | Mary |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɛə.ɹi/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,730 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “Mary” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for Mary is 4 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈmɛə.ɹi/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,730 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for Mary, with forms such as "maryy", "mayr", and "mmary". 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, "my", "Mr", "may", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English Marie, from Old French Marie, from Latin Maria, from Ancient Greek Μαρία (María), Μαριάμ (Mariám), from Aramaic מַרְיָם (maryām) or Biblical Hebrew מִרְיָם (miryām), of uncertain meaning (see the Hebrew entry for more). Doublet of Miriam… The correct English form is Mary, spelled M-A-R-Y.
Definition
- 1A female given name from Aramaic or Hebrew.
- 2The mother of Jesus; believed in Christianity and Islam to have been a virgin, and believed by most Christians to have been born herself without sin, to have been assumed into Heaven without death, and to act as a sympathetic intercessor for believers.
- 3Any of several other women in the New Testament, notably:
- 4Any of several other women in the New Testament, notably:
- 5Synonym of Maryam (“The 19th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an”)
- 6A term of address for a male homosexual.
- 7A male middle name, given in honour of the Virgin Mary.
Etymology
From Middle English Marie, from Old French Marie, from Latin Maria, from Ancient Greek Μαρία (María), Μαριάμ (Mariám), from Aramaic מַרְיָם (maryām) or Biblical Hebrew מִרְיָם (miryām), of uncertain meaning (see the Hebrew entry for more). Doublet of Miriam, Marie, Maria, and Mariah.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: maryy,mayr,mmary,mray
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of Mary - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “Mary”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is M-A-R-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈmɛə.ɹi/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “my” - see the side-by-side comparison. Mary vs my
- 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.