Which to use
“common” is an adjective and “commonly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #631
- “common” frequency rank
- #3,745
- “commonly” frequency rank
- 4376
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | common | commonly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mutual; shared by more than one. | As a rule; frequently; usually. |
Where the eye mixes common and commonly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: common vs commonly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: common is /ˈkɒm.ən/ while commonly is /ˈkɑmənli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “common” sits inside “commonly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
common is recorded at frequency rank #631, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɒm.ən/. commonly is at rank #3,745, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈkɑmənli/.
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 4376, this pair ranks #519,132 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of common vs commonly
Shared letters: cmno. Private to "common": -. Private to "commonly": ly.
"common" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "commonly" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "common" and "commonly" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "common" or "commonly" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "common" and "commonly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "common" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "commonly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #519,132 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "common" and "commonly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comming vs common". 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 #519,132 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.