Which to use
“accurate” is an adjective and “accurately” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,606
- “accurate” frequency rank
- #7,193
- “accurately” frequency rank
- 9799
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | accurate | accurately |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Telling the truth or giving a true result; exact; not defective or faulty. | In an accurate manner; exactly; precisely; without error or defect. |
Where the eye mixes accurate and accurately
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: accurate is /ˈak.jʊ.ɹɪt/ while accurately is /ˈak.jə.ɹɪt.li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “accurate” sits inside “accurately”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
accurate is recorded at frequency rank #2,606, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈak.jʊ.ɹɪt/. accurately is at rank #7,193, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈak.jə.ɹɪt.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 9799, this pair ranks #495,531 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of accurate vs accurately
Shared letters: acertu. Private to "accurate": -. Private to "accurately": ly.
"accurate" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV · "accurately" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- accurate ← accruate · accuarte · accuraet · accuratte · accurrate · accurtae · acucrate · acurate
- accurately ← accruately · accuartely · accuraetly · accuratelly · accuratelyy · accurateyl · accuratley · accurattely