Which to use
“ecological” is an adjective and “ecologically” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,884
- “ecological” frequency rank
- #36,971
- “ecologically” frequency rank
- 46855
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ecological | ecologically |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relating to ecology, the interrelationships of organisms and their environment. | In an ecological manner. |
Letter map: ecological vs ecologically
Shared letters muted; letters that set ecological and ecologically apart highlighted. Shared run: 10.
Part-of-speech tell for ecological / ecologically
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ecological is anadjective and ecologicallyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ecological” sits inside “ecologically”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46855, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ecological is recorded at frequency rank #9,884, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˌiːkəˈlɒd͡ʒɪkl̩/. ecologically is at rank #36,971, 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 46855, this pair ranks #207,823 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ecological vs ecologically
Shared letters: acegilo. Private to "ecological": -. Private to "ecologically": y.
"ecological" · 10 letters · shape VCVCVCVCVC · "ecologically" · 12 letters · shape VCVCVCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- ecological ← ceological · eccological · ecloogical · ecolgoical · ecollogical · ecologcial · ecologgical · ecologiacl
- ecologically ← ceologically · eccologically · ecloogically · ecolgoically · ecollogically · ecologcially · ecologgically · ecologiaclly
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ecological" for "ecologically" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ecological" or "ecologically"?
After this comparison
You've compared "ecological" and "ecologically". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "ecological" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ecologically" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #207,823 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ecological" and "ecologically" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ecologically vs economically". 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 #207,823 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.