Bad or badly?
bad is an adjective meaning “Of low quality”; badly is an adverb meaning “In a bad manner”. Use bad as an adjective and badly as an adverb (badly is also an adjective: “Ill, unwell”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) bad is about 12 times as common as badly.
What is the difference between bad and badly?
| bad | badly | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, adverb, noun, interjection, verb | adverb, adjective |
| Meaning | Of low quality Inaccurate; incorrect informalNot covered by funds on account | In a bad manner Very much; to a great degree Ill, unwell |
| Example | That movie was really bad! | Things are going badly for her: she did badly in her exams owing to a badly designed studying schedule |
| Forms | worse, worst badder, baddest | worse, worst |
| Pronunciation | /bæd/ /bæːd/ /bɛd/ | /ˈbæd.li/ |
| In writing | 339 times per million words | 28 times per million words |
Sources: bad and badly in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of bad and badly
bad
- 1
Of low quality
That movie was really bad!
- 2
informalNot covered by funds on account
He gave me a bad check
- 3
slangBold, daring, and tough
He's the baddest guy in town!
- 4
colloquialslangBadly; poorly
I didn't do too bad in the last exam
- 5
slangSomething that is bad; a harm or evil
- 6
slangUsed to scold a misbehaving child or pet
Bad! You know you're not allowed in the kitchen after dinner
- 7
UKslangTo shell (a walnut)
A curious specimen of Gloucestershire dialect came out in an assault case heard by the Gloucester court magistrates on Saturday. One of the witnesses, speaking of what a girl was…
- 8
Inaccurate; incorrect
A bad guess
badly
- 1
In a bad manner
Things are going badly for her: she did badly in her exams owing to a badly designed studying schedule
- 2
Ill, unwell
He's never badly
- 3
Very much; to a great degree
I want it so badly
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, bad or badly?
bad appears 339 times per million words; badly 28 times per million words.
bad 339 times per million wordsbadly 28 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search bad vs badly?
“bad vs badly” is searched about 480 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“badly vs bad”, “bad or badly”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.