Which to use
“clear” is an adjective and “clearly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #558
- “clear” frequency rank
- #1,265
- “clearly” frequency rank
- 1823
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clear | clearly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Transparent in colour. | In a clear manner. |
Where the eye mixes clear and clearly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: clear is /klɪə/ while clearly is /ˈklɪɚli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “clear” sits inside “clearly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clear is recorded at frequency rank #558, classified as anadj, pronounced /klɪə/. clearly is at rank #1,265, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈklɪɚli/.
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 1823, this pair ranks #526,561 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of clear vs clearly
Shared letters: acelr. Private to "clear": -. Private to "clearly": y.
"clear" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "clearly" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV