Which to use
“admirable” is an adjective and “admirably” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,320
- “admirable” frequency rank
- #32,267
- “admirably” frequency rank
- 47587
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | admirable | admirably |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deserving of the highest esteem or admiration; estimable. | In a way worthy of admiration. |
Where the eye mixes admirable and admirably
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. admirable and admirably follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between admirable and admirably
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: admirable is /ˈæd.məɹ.ə.bəl/ while admirably is /ˈæd.mə.ɹə.bli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “admirable” becomes y in “admirably”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47587, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
admirable is recorded at frequency rank #15,320, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈæd.məɹ.ə.bəl/. admirably is at rank #32,267, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈæd.mə.ɹə.bli/.
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 47587, this pair ranks #201,044 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of admirable vs admirably
Shared letters: abdilmr. Private to "admirable": e. Private to "admirably": y.
"admirable" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV · "admirably" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "admirable" for "admirably" ever safe?
Frequency check: "admirable" vs "admirably" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "admirable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "admirably" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,044 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "admirable" and "admirably" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "admirably vs amicably". 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 #201,044 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.