blindlyvsbluntlyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“blindly” and “bluntly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,031
“blindly” frequency rank
#26,345
“bluntly” frequency rank
45376
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blindly bluntly
Definition In a blind manner; without sight. In a blunt manner; without delicacy, or the usual forms of civility.

Where the eye mixes blindly and bluntly

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. blindly and bluntly follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
blindly
7 ch
bluntly

Visual trap between blindly and bluntly

A purely visual mix-up. blindly (/ˈblaɪndli/) and bluntly (/ˈblʌntli/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blindly is recorded at frequency rank #19,031, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈblaɪndli/. bluntly is at rank #26,345, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈblʌntli/.

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 45376, this pair ranks #221,798 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of blindly vs bluntly

Shared letters: blny. Private to "blindly": di. Private to "bluntly": tu.

"blindly" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV  ·  "bluntly" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blindly ← bblindly · bilndly · blidnly · blinddly · blindlly · blindlyy · blindyl · blinldy
  • bluntly ← bbluntly · blluntly · blnutly · blunlty · blunntly · bluntlly · bluntlyy · blunttly

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "blindly" and "bluntly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈblaɪndli/ versus /ˈblʌntli/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "blindly" vs "bluntly" - which ranks higher?
"blindly" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,031 in our English list, against #26,345 for "bluntly". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "blindly" and "bluntly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blindly" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bluntly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,798 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blindly" and "bluntly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blankly vs bluntly". 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 #221,798 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list