Which to use
“coldly” is an adverb and “costly” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,067
- “coldly” frequency rank
- #7,899
- “costly” frequency rank
- 49966
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coldly | costly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In a cold or uncaring manner; indifferently. | Of high cost; expensive. |
Where the eye mixes coldly and costly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between coldly and costly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coldly is /ˈkəʊldli/ while costly is /ˈkɒst.li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coldly is recorded at frequency rank #42,067, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈkəʊldli/. costly is at rank #7,899, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɒst.li/.
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 49966, this pair ranks #178,591 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of coldly vs costly
Shared letters: cloy. Private to "coldly": d. Private to "costly": st.
"coldly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "costly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "coldly" for "costly" ever safe?
Frequency check: "coldly" vs "costly" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "coldly" and "costly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "coldly" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "costly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,591 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coldly" and "costly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cally vs coldly". 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 #178,591 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.