Which to use
“bold” is an adjective and “boldly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,579
- “bold” frequency rank
- #20,050
- “boldly” frequency rank
- 24629
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bold | boldly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Courageous, daring. | In a bold manner; with confidence. |
Where the eye mixes bold and boldly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bold runs 4 letters (CVCC) against boldly's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses bold with boldly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bold is /ˈbəʊld/ while boldly is /ˈbəʊldli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “bold” sits inside “boldly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bold is recorded at frequency rank #4,579, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈbəʊld/. boldly is at rank #20,050, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈbəʊldli/.
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 24629, this pair ranks #400,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bold vs boldly
Shared letters: bdlo. Private to "bold": -. Private to "boldly": y.
"bold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "boldly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bold" for "boldly" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "bold" or "boldly" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bold" and "boldly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "boldly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bold" and "boldly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baldy vs boldly". 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 #400,579 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.