Which to use
“conspicuous” is an adjective and “conspicuously” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,277
- “conspicuous” frequency rank
- #33,589
- “conspicuously” frequency rank
- 51866
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | conspicuous | conspicuously |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Obvious or easy to notice. | In a conspicuous manner; noticeably. |
Letter map: conspicuous vs conspicuously
Shared letters muted; letters that set conspicuous and conspicuously apart highlighted. Shared run: 11.
Role in the sentence - conspicuous and conspicuously
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: conspicuous is anadjective and conspicuouslyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “conspicuous” sits inside “conspicuously”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
conspicuous is recorded at frequency rank #18,277, classified as anadj, pronounced /kənˈspɪk.ju.əs/. conspicuously is at rank #33,589, 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 51866, this pair ranks #161,803 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of conspicuous vs conspicuously
Shared letters: cinopsu. Private to "conspicuous": -. Private to "conspicuously": ly.
"conspicuous" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVVC · "conspicuously" · 13 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- conspicuous ← cconspicuous · cnospicuous · connspicuous · conpsicuous · consipcuous · conspciuous · conspiccuous · conspicouus
- conspicuously ← cconspicuously · cnospicuously · connspicuously · conpsicuously · consipcuously · conspciuously · conspiccuously · conspicouusly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "conspicuous" and "conspicuously" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "conspicuous" vs "conspicuously" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "conspicuous" and "conspicuously".
- Full dictionary entry for "conspicuous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "conspicuously" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #161,803 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #161,803 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.