charmingvscharminglyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: charming is a adjective, charmingly is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“charming” is an adjective and “charmingly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,341
“charming” frequency rank
#48,659
“charmingly” frequency rank
55000
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature charming charmingly
Definition Pleasant, charismatic. In a charming manner.

Letter map: charming vs charmingly

Shared letters muted; letters that set charming and charmingly apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.

8 ch
charming
10 ch
charmingly

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: charming is anadjective and charminglyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “charming” sits inside “charmingly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

charming is recorded at frequency rank #6,341, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈtʃɑː(ɹ).mɪŋ/. charmingly is at rank #48,659, 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 55000, this pair ranks #136,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of charming vs charmingly

Shared letters: acghimnr. Private to "charming": -. Private to "charmingly": ly.

"charming" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "charmingly" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charmingcahrming · ccharming · chamring · charimng · charmign · charmingg · charminng · charmming
  • charminglycahrmingly · ccharmingly · chamringly · charimngly · charmignly · charminggly · charminglly · charminglyy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "charming" and "charmingly" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "charming" is an adjective and "charmingly" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "charming" or "charmingly"?
"charming" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,341 in our English list, against #48,659 for "charmingly". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "charming" and "charmingly". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "charming" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "charmingly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "charming" and "charmingly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaining vs charming". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list