Which to use
“completed” is a verb and “completely” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,750
- “completed” frequency rank
- #1,070
- “completely” frequency rank
- 2820
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | completed | completely |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of complete | In a complete manner; thoroughly. |
Where the eye mixes completed and completely
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: completed vs completely
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: completed is /kəmˈpliːtɪd/ while completely is /kəmˈpliːtli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
completed is recorded at frequency rank #1,750, classified as averb, pronounced /kəmˈpliːtɪd/. completely is at rank #1,070, tagged as anadv, pronounced /kəmˈpliːtli/.
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 2820, this pair ranks #523,946 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of completed vs completely
Shared letters: celmopt. Private to "completed": d. Private to "completely": y.
"completed" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVCVC · "completely" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- completed ← ccompleted · cmopleted · comlpeted · commpleted · compelted · compleetd · completde · completedd
- completely ← ccompletely · cmopletely · comlpetely · commpletely · compeltely · compleetly · completelly · completelyy
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "completed" and "completely" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "completed" or "completely" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "completed" and "completely" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "completed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "completely" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #523,946 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "completed" and "completely" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "compacted vs completed". 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 #523,946 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.