Which to use
“credible” is an adjective and “credibly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,027
- “credible” frequency rank
- #48,682
- “credibly” frequency rank
- 58709
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | credible | credibly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Believable or plausible. | In a credible manner; believably. |
Where the eye mixes credible and credibly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. credible and credibly follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between credible and credibly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: credible is /ˈkɹɛdəbl̩/ while credibly is /ˈkɹɛdɪbli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “credible” becomes y in “credibly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
credible is recorded at frequency rank #10,027, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹɛdəbl̩/. credibly is at rank #48,682, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈkɹɛdɪbli/.
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 58709, this pair ranks #110,825 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of credible vs credibly
Shared letters: bcdeilr. Private to "credible": -. Private to "credibly": y.
"credible" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV · "credibly" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "credible" and "credibly" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "credible" or "credibly" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "credible" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "credibly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #110,825 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "credible" and "credibly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "credible vs crucible". 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 #110,825 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.