Which to use
“elegant” is an adjective and “elegantly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,682
- “elegant” frequency rank
- #30,018
- “elegantly” frequency rank
- 37700
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | elegant | elegantly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Characterised by or exhibiting elegance; having grace, refinement, or tasteful simplicity. | Gracefully, smoothly, and swiftly; with supreme style. |
Letter map: elegant vs elegantly
Shared letters muted; letters that set elegant and elegantly apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Grammar separator: elegant vs elegantly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: elegant is anadjective and elegantlyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “elegant” sits inside “elegantly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37700, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
elegant is recorded at frequency rank #7,682, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɛl.ə.ɡənt/. elegantly is at rank #30,018, 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 37700, this pair ranks #292,284 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of elegant vs elegantly
Shared letters: aeglnt. Private to "elegant": -. Private to "elegantly": y.
"elegant" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC · "elegantly" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "elegant" and "elegantly" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "elegant" vs "elegantly" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "elegant" vs "elegantly" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "elegant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "elegantly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #292,284 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "elegant" and "elegantly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "elegance vs elegant". 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 #292,284 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.