Which to use
“disturbing” is an adjective and “disturbingly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,562
- “disturbing” frequency rank
- #44,169
- “disturbingly” frequency rank
- 50731
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | disturbing | disturbingly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Causing distress or worry; upsetting or unsettling. | In a disturbing manner. |
Letter map: disturbing vs disturbingly
Shared letters muted; letters that set disturbing and disturbingly apart highlighted. Shared run: 10.
Role in the sentence - disturbing and disturbingly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: disturbing is anadjective and disturbinglyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “disturbing” sits inside “disturbingly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
disturbing is recorded at frequency rank #6,562, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɪsˈtɜː.bɪŋ/. disturbingly is at rank #44,169, 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 50731, this pair ranks #171,679 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of disturbing vs disturbingly
Shared letters: bdginrstu. Private to "disturbing": -. Private to "disturbingly": ly.
"disturbing" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC · "disturbingly" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- disturbing ← ddisturbing · dissturbing · distrubing · distturbing · distubring · disturbbing · disturbign · disturbingg
- disturbingly ← ddisturbingly · dissturbingly · distrubingly · distturbingly · distubringly · disturbbingly · disturbignly · disturbinggly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "disturbing" and "disturbingly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "disturbing" or "disturbingly"?
What to do next
You've compared "disturbing" and "disturbingly". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "disturbing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "disturbingly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,679 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "disturbing" and "disturbingly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "distorting vs disturbing". 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 #171,679 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.