Which to use
“Mary” is a name and “merry” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,805
- “Mary” frequency rank
- #36,156
- “merry” frequency rank
- 40961
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Mary | merry |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nombre personal femenino, equivalente a María. | Alegre, feliz. |
Where the eye mixes Mary and merry
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between Mary and merry
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Mary is /ˈmɛə.ɹi/ while merry is /ˈmɛ.ɹi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Mary is recorded at frequency rank #4,805, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈmɛə.ɹi/. merry is at rank #36,156, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɛ.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 40961, this pair ranks #156,254 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Mary vs merry
Shared letters: mry. Private to "Mary": a. Private to "merry": e.
"Mary" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "merry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Mary" and "merry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "Mary" or "merry" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "Mary" and "merry" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Mary" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #156,254 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Mary" and "merry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merca vs merry". 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 #156,254 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.