mary
/ˈmɛɚ.i/noun, interjection
mary is spelled M-A-R-Y: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 60 times per million words in written English, the 1,724th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Mary, the name). As a noun, mary means “Alternative letter-case form of Mary (“male homosexual”)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mary is marys.
How many letters and syllables are in mary?
| Letters | 4: M-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 60 times per million words; the 1,724th 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 mary?
Mary appears 60 times per million words in written English, the 1,724th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Mary, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce mary?
- /ˈmɛɚ.i/
- /ˈmɛɹ.i/
Mary has 2 syllables (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)-Wodencafe-mary.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with mary
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: m-ary (one word or two), marry.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with mary?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as mary.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: army, yarm.
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 mary
- marys plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does mary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Alternative letter-case form of Mary (“male homosexual”).
interjection
- 1
Alternative form of marry (“indeed, in truth”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does mary come from?
From Mary (“female name”). Compare nan and nancy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).