Which to use
“blunt” is an adjective and “bluntly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,245
- “blunt” frequency rank
- #26,345
- “bluntly” frequency rank
- 34590
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | blunt | bluntly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a thick edge or point; not sharp. | In a blunt manner; without delicacy, or the usual forms of civility. |
Where the eye mixes blunt and bluntly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. blunt runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against bluntly's 7 (CCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: blunt vs bluntly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blunt is /blʌnt/ while bluntly is /ˈblʌntli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “blunt” sits inside “bluntly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
blunt is recorded at frequency rank #8,245, classified as anadj, pronounced /blʌnt/. 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 34590, this pair ranks #319,470 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of blunt vs bluntly
Shared letters: blntu. Private to "blunt": -. Private to "bluntly": y.
"blunt" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "bluntly" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "blunt" and "bluntly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "blunt" vs "bluntly" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "blunt" 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 #319,470 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "blunt" 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 #319,470 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.