Which to use
“developmental” is an adjective and “developmentally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,874
- “developmental” frequency rank
- #40,209
- “developmentally” frequency rank
- 50083
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | developmental | developmentally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Related to development. | In terms of development. |
Letter map: developmental vs developmentally
Shared letters muted; letters that set developmental and developmentally apart highlighted. Shared run: 13.
Grammar separator: developmental vs developmentally
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: developmental is anadjective and developmentallyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “developmental” sits inside “developmentally”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
developmental is recorded at frequency rank #9,874, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪˌvɛləpˈmɛntəl/. developmentally is at rank #40,209, tagged as anadv.
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 50083, this pair ranks #177,528 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of developmental vs developmentally
Shared letters: adelmnoptv. Private to "developmental": -. Private to "developmentally": y.
"developmental" · 13 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCCVC · "developmentally" · 15 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- developmental ← ddevelopmental · deevlopmental · devellopmental · develompental · developemntal · developmenatl · developmenntal · developmentall
- developmentally ← ddevelopmentally · deevlopmentally · devellopmentally · develompentally · developemntally · developmenatlly · developmenntally · developmentallyy
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "developmental" and "developmentally" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "developmental" vs "developmentally" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "developmental" and "developmentally".
- Full dictionary entry for "developmental" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "developmentally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #177,528 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "developmental" and "developmentally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "development vs developmental". 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 #177,528 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.