Which to use
“customarily” is an adverb and “customary” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,408
- “customarily” frequency rank
- #14,306
- “customary” frequency rank
- 60714
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | customarily | customary |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In the customary manner; as is custom | In accordance with, or established by, custom or common usage. |
Letter map: customarily vs customary
Shared letters muted; letters that set customarily and customary apart highlighted. Shared run: 9.
Role in the sentence - customarily and customary
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: customarily is anadverb and customaryanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60714, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
customarily is recorded at frequency rank #46,408, classified as anadv. customary is at rank #14,306, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkʌs.tə.m(ə.)ɹi/.
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 60714, this pair ranks #98,499 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of customarily vs customary
Shared letters: acmorstuy. Private to "customarily": il. Private to "customary": -.
"customarily" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCV · "customary" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- customarily ← ccustomarily · csutomarily · cusotmarily · cusstomarily · custmoarily · custoamrily · customairly · customarilly
- customary ← ccustomary · csutomary · cusotmary · cusstomary · custmoary · custoamry · customarry · customaryy
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "customarily" for "customary" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "customarily" or "customary" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "customarily" vs "customary" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "customarily" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "customary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #98,499 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "customarily" and "customary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "customary vs customer". 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 #98,499 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.