Which to use
“dead” and “deadly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #652
- “dead” frequency rank
- #5,489
- “deadly” frequency rank
- 6141
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dead | deadly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | No longer living; deceased. (Also used as a noun.) | Subject to death; mortal. |
Where the eye mixes dead and deadly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dead vs deadly
A purely visual mix-up. dead (/dɛd/) and deadly (/ˈdɛdli/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dead” sits inside “deadly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6141, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dead is recorded at frequency rank #652, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɛd/. deadly is at rank #5,489, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɛdli/.
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 6141, this pair ranks #512,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dead vs deadly
Shared letters: ade. Private to "dead": -. Private to "deadly": ly.
"dead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "deadly" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dead" for "deadly" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dead" vs "deadly" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dead" and "deadly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dead" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "deadly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #512,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dead" and "deadly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dead vs derp". 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 #512,578 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.