carryvscryWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#25,925
“carry” frequency rank
#12,412
“cry” frequency rank
38337
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carry cry
Definition levar, transportar, carregar choro

Letter map: carry vs cry

Shared letters muted; letters that set carry and cry apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
carry
3 ch
cry

Part-of-speech tell for carry / cry

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: carry is averb and cryanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carry is recorded at frequency rank #25,925, classified as averb. cry is at rank #12,412, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹaɪ̯/.

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 38337, this pair ranks #28,135 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carry vs cry

Shared letters: cry. Private to "carry": a. Private to "cry": -.

"carry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cry" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carryacrry · carryy · cary · caryr · ccarry · crary

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "carry" and "cry" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "carry" is a verb and "cry" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "carry" vs "cry" - which ranks higher?
"cry" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,412 in our Portuguese list, against #25,925 for "carry". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "carry" vs "cry" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "carry" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,135 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carry" and "cry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cárie vs carry". 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 #28,135 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list