Which to use
“brutal” is an adjective and “brutally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,030
- “brutal” frequency rank
- #13,110
- “brutally” frequency rank
- 19140
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | brutal | brutally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Savagely violent, vicious, ruthless, or cruel, often in an unintelligent manner. | In a brutal manner; viciously, barbarically. |
Letter map: brutal vs brutally
Shared letters muted; letters that set brutal and brutally apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. brutal runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against brutally's 8 (CCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - brutal and brutally
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: brutal is anadjective and brutallyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “brutal” sits inside “brutally”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
brutal is recorded at frequency rank #6,030, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɹuː.təl/. brutally is at rank #13,110, tagged as anadv.
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 19140, this pair ranks #440,231 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of brutal vs brutally
Shared letters: ablrtu. Private to "brutal": -. Private to "brutally": y.
"brutal" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "brutally" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "brutal" and "brutally" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "brutal" or "brutally"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "brutal" and "brutally".
- Full dictionary entry for "brutal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brutally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #440,231 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "brutal" and "brutally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brut vs brutal". 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 #440,231 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.