frayvsfuryTell them apart

Which to use

“fray” and “fury” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,828
“fray” frequency rank
#33,619
“fury” frequency rank
43447
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fray fury
Definition Úsase como vocativo ante el nombre de un fraile o freile. Furia.

Where the eye mixes fray and fury

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fray
4 ch
fury

Visual trap between fray and fury

A purely visual mix-up. fray ([ˈfɾaj]) and fury (/ˈfjʊə.ɹi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fray is recorded at frequency rank #9,828, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɾaj]. fury is at rank #33,619, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfjʊə.ɹi/.

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 43447, this pair ranks #142,592 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fray vs fury

Shared letters: fry. Private to "fray": a. Private to "fury": u.

"fray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "fury" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • frayfary · ffray · frayy · frray · frya · rfay
  • furyffury · fruy · furry · furyy · fuyr · ufry

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fray" for "fury" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfɾaj] versus /ˈfjʊə.ɹi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fray" or "fury"?
"fray" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,828 in our Spanish list, against #33,619 for "fury". 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 "fray" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fury" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,592 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fray" and "fury" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fora vs fury". 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 #142,592 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