Which to use
“deadly” and “deathly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,489
- “deadly” frequency rank
- #32,344
- “deathly” frequency rank
- 37833
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | deadly | deathly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Subject to death; mortal. | Appearing as though dead, or on the verge of death. |
Where the eye mixes deadly and deathly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. deadly runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against deathly's 7 (CVVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between deadly and deathly
A purely visual mix-up. deadly (/ˈdɛdli/) and deathly (/ˈdɛθli/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
deadly is recorded at frequency rank #5,489, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɛdli/. deathly is at rank #32,344, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɛθli/.
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 37833, this pair ranks #291,091 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of deadly vs deathly
Shared letters: adely. Private to "deadly": -. Private to "deathly": ht.
"deadly" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "deathly" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "deadly" and "deathly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "deadly" or "deathly"?
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 "deadly" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "deathly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #291,091 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "deadly" and "deathly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deathly vs deftly". 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 #291,091 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.