Which to use
“amicable” is an adjective and “amicably” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,906
- “amicable” frequency rank
- #40,550
- “amicably” frequency rank
- 70456
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | amicable | amicably |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Showing friendliness or goodwill. | Friendly; in an amicable manner. |
Where the eye mixes amicable and amicably
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: amicable vs amicably
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: amicable is /ˈæ.mɪ.kə.bəl/ while amicably is /ˈæ.mɪ.kə.bli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “amicable” becomes y in “amicably”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70456, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
amicable is recorded at frequency rank #29,906, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈæ.mɪ.kə.bəl/. amicably is at rank #40,550, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈæ.mɪ.kə.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 70456, this pair ranks #50,512 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of amicable vs amicably
Shared letters: abcilm. Private to "amicable": e. Private to "amicably": y.
"amicable" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCCV · "amicably" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "amicable" and "amicably" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "amicable" or "amicably"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "amicable" and "amicably" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "amicable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "amicably" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #50,512 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "amicable" and "amicably" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amiable 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 #50,512 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.