consecutivevsconsecutivelyWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,313
“consecutive” frequency rank
#31,486
“consecutively” frequency rank
36799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature consecutive consecutively
Definition Following, in succession, without interruption. In a consecutive manner; without interruption.

Letter map: consecutive vs consecutively

Shared letters muted; letters that set consecutive and consecutively apart highlighted. Shared run: 11.

11 ch
consecutive
13 ch
consecutively

Grammar separator: consecutive vs consecutively

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: consecutive is anadjective and consecutivelyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “consecutive” sits inside “consecutively”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

consecutive is recorded at frequency rank #5,313, classified as anadj, pronounced /kənˈsɛkjʊtɪv/. consecutively is at rank #31,486, 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 36799, this pair ranks #300,063 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of consecutive vs consecutively

Shared letters: ceinostuv. Private to "consecutive": -. Private to "consecutively": ly.

"consecutive" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCV  ·  "consecutively" · 13 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • consecutivecconsecutive · cnosecutive · conescutive · connsecutive · consceutive · conseccutive · consectuive · consecuitve
  • consecutivelycconsecutively · cnosecutively · conescutively · connsecutively · consceutively · conseccutively · consectuively · consecuitvely

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "consecutive" and "consecutively" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "consecutive" is an adjective and "consecutively" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "consecutive" vs "consecutively" - which ranks higher?
"consecutive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,313 in our English list, against #31,486 for "consecutively". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "consecutive" vs "consecutively" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "consecutive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "consecutively" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,063 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "consecutive" and "consecutively" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "consecutive vs convective". 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 #300,063 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list