beastly vs Beatty, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“beastly” is an adjective and “Beatty” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,752
“beastly” frequency rank: #22,587
“Beatty” frequency rank: 61339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	beastly	Beatty
Definition	Pertaining to, or having the form, nature, or habits of, a beast.	A surname.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set beastly and Beatty apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

beastly

6 ch

Beatty

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: beastly is /ˈbiːstli/ while Beatty is /ˈbi.ɾi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

beastly is recorded at frequency rank #38,752, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈbiːstli/. Beatty is at rank #22,587, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈbi.ɾi/.

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 61339, this pair ranks #94,874 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of beastly vs Beatty

Shared letters: abety. Private to "beastly": ls. Private to "Beatty": -.

"beastly" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV · "Beatty" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

beastly ← baestly · bbeastly · beaslty · beasstly · beastlly · beastlyy · beasttly · beastyl
Beatty ← baetty · bbeatty · beattyy · beaty · beatyt · betaty · ebatty

Frequency comparison

beastly#38,752

Beatty#22,587

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "beastly" and "Beatty" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "beastly" is an adjective and "Beatty" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "beastly" or "Beatty"?

"Beatty" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,587 in our English list, against #38,752 for "beastly". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering beastly vs Beatty

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “beastly”; for a name, it's “Beatty”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “beastly” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable