# courtesy vs courtly

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### courtesy
*noun · IPA /ˈkɜːtəsi/ · frequency rank #5,778*
Polite behavior.

### courtly
*adjective · IPA /ˈkɔːtli/ · frequency rank #47,552*
Befitting of a royal court; reflecting the manners or behaviour of people at court.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/courtesy-vs-courtly