Which to use
“soya” and “spy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,368
- “soya” frequency rank
- #37,565
- “spy” frequency rank
- 86933
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | soya | spy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sauce de soja. | Espion. |
Where the eye mixes soya and spy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. soya runs 4 letters (CVVV) against spy's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between soya and spy
A purely visual mix-up. soya (\sɔ.ja\) and spy (\spaɪ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86933, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
soya is recorded at frequency rank #49,368, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɔ.ja\. spy is at rank #37,565, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spaɪ\.
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 86933, this pair ranks #8,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of soya vs spy
Shared letters: sy. Private to "soya": ao. Private to "spy": p.
"soya" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "spy" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- soya ← osya · soay · soyya · ssoya · syoa
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "soya" for "spy" ever safe?
Frequency check: "soya" vs "spy" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "soya" and "spy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "soya" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "soya" and "spy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Soraya vs soya". 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 #8,983 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.