careyvscarryTell them apart

Quick tell: carey is a noun, carry is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“carey” is a noun and “carry” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,690
“carey” frequency rank
#41,237
“carry” frequency rank
72927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carey carry
Definition (Eretmochelys imbricata) Gran tortuga marina que habita arrecifes coralinos en las aguas tropicales de todo el globo. Alcanza los 80 kg de peso y más de un metro de largo, con un distintivo caparazón cordiforme y un patrón de color amarillo orlando los escudos del espaldar. Tiene la cabeza elongada, con morro en forma de pico y las patas palmeadas con dos garras por pie. Capturada por sus huevos y su caparazón, está en grave riesgo de extinción. Llevar, transportar.

Where the eye mixes carey and carry

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. carey (CVCVV) and carry (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
carey
5 ch
carry

Visual trap between carey and carry

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: carey is [kaˈɾej] while carry is /ˈkæɹ.ɪ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “carey” becomes r in “carry”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carey is recorded at frequency rank #31,690, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaˈɾej]. carry is at rank #41,237, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkæɹ.ɪ/.

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 72927, this pair ranks #24,355 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carey vs carry

Shared letters: acry. Private to "carey": e. Private to "carry": -.

"carey" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "carry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carey ← acrey · caery · careyy · carrey · carye · ccarey · craey
  • carry ← acrry · carryy · cary · caryr · ccarry · crary

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "carey" and "carry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carey" is a noun and "carry" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "carey" or "carry"?
"carey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,690 in our Spanish list, against #41,237 for "carry". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "carey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,355 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carey" and "carry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carry vs catre". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #24,355 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list