Which to use
“darby” is a noun and “darkly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,229
- “darby” frequency rank
- #29,989
- “darkly” frequency rank
- 53218
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | darby | darkly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A specialized tool used to smooth and level the surface of wet concrete, consisting of a stiff wedge or triangle of wood or metal. | With insufficient light for easy discernment or comprehension. |
Letter map: darby vs darkly
Shared letters muted; letters that set darby and darkly apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. darby runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against darkly's 6 (CVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for darby / darkly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: darby is anoun and darklyanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53218, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
darby is recorded at frequency rank #23,229, classified as anoun. darkly is at rank #29,989, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈdɑːkli/.
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 53218, this pair ranks #150,814 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of darby vs darkly
Shared letters: adry. Private to "darby": b. Private to "darkly": kl.
"darby" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "darkly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "darby" and "darkly" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "darby" or "darkly"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "darby" and "darkly". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "darby" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "darkly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #150,814 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "darby" and "darkly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "darkly vs Darla". 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 #150,814 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.