Which to use
“distant” is an adjective and “distantly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,212
- “distant” frequency rank
- #43,115
- “distantly” frequency rank
- 48327
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | distant | distantly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Far off (physically, logically or mentally). | At a distance. |
Letter map: distant vs distantly
Shared letters muted; letters that set distant and distantly apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Grammar separator: distant vs distantly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: distant is anadjective and distantlyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “distant” sits inside “distantly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
distant is recorded at frequency rank #5,212, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈdɪstənt/. distantly is at rank #43,115, 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 48327, this pair ranks #194,110 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of distant vs distantly
Shared letters: adinst. Private to "distant": -. Private to "distantly": ly.
"distant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "distantly" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "distant" and "distantly" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "distant" or "distantly" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "distant" and "distantly". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "distant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "distantly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #194,110 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "distant" and "distantly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dismantle vs distantly". 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 #194,110 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.