realityvsreallyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: reality is a noun, really is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reality” is a noun and “really” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,922
“reality” frequency rank
#22,113
“really” frequency rank
33035
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reality really
Definition Realität, Wirklichkeit in Wirklichkeit

Letter map: reality vs really

Shared letters muted; letters that set reality and really apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
reality
6 ch
really

Part-of-speech tell for reality / really

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: reality is anoun and reallyanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reality is recorded at frequency rank #10,922, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. really is at rank #22,113, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈrɪəli].

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 33035, this pair ranks #1,694,707 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reality vs really

Shared letters: aelry. Private to "reality": it. Private to "really": -.

"reality" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "really" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • realityerality · raelity · reailty · realitty · realityy · realiyt · reallity · realtiy
  • reallyerally · raelly · reallyy · realy · realyl · relaly · rreally

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "reality" and "really" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reality" is a noun and "really" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "reality" or "really"?
"reality" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,922 in our German list, against #22,113 for "really". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "reality" and "really".

  • Full dictionary entry for "reality" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "really" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,694,707 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reality" and "really" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs reality". 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 #1,694,707 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list