Which to use
“accidental” is an adjective and “accidentally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,277
- “accidental” frequency rank
- #4,911
- “accidentally” frequency rank
- 14188
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | accidental | accidentally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pertaining to accident and not essence; thus, inessential; incidental; secondary. | In an accidental manner; by chance, unexpectedly. |
Where the eye mixes accidental and accidentally
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. accidental runs 10 letters (VCCVCVCCVC) against accidentally's 12 (VCCVCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: accidental vs accidentally
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: accidental is /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛn.tl̩/ while accidentally is /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(ə)li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “accidental” sits inside “accidentally”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
accidental is recorded at frequency rank #9,277, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛn.tl̩/. accidentally is at rank #4,911, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˌæk.sɪˈdɛnt(ə)li/.
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 14188, this pair ranks #471,547 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of accidental vs accidentally
Shared letters: acdeilnt. Private to "accidental": -. Private to "accidentally": y.
"accidental" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVC · "accidentally" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- accidental ← accdiental · acciddental · accidenatl · accidenntal · accidentall · accidentla · accidenttal · accidetnal
- accidentally ← accdientally · acciddentally · accidenatlly · accidenntally · accidentallyy · accidentaly · accidentalyl · accidentlaly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "accidental" and "accidentally" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "accidental" or "accidentally" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "accidental" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "accidentally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #471,547 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "accidental" and "accidentally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accidental vs accidently". 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 #471,547 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.