Which to use
“courted” and “courtly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,593
- “courted” frequency rank
- #47,552
- “courtly” frequency rank
- 81145
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courted | courtly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Romantically pursued; wooed. | Befitting of a royal court; reflecting the manners or behaviour of people at court. |
Letter map: courted vs courtly
Shared letters muted; letters that set courted and courtly apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. courted (CVVCCVC) and courtly (CVVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Pair insight - courted / courtly
courted and courtly are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courted is recorded at frequency rank #33,593, classified as anadj. courtly is at rank #47,552, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɔːtli/.
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 81145, this pair ranks #18,295 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of courted vs courtly
Shared letters: cortu. Private to "courted": de. Private to "courtly": ly.
"courted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "courtly" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "courted" and "courtly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "courted" or "courtly"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "courted" and "courtly".
- Full dictionary entry for "courted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "courtly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #18,295 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courted" and "courtly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courtly vs covertly". 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 #18,295 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.