Which to use
“emotional” is an adjective and “emotionally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,199
- “emotional” frequency rank
- #6,682
- “emotionally” frequency rank
- 8881
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | emotional | emotionally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of or relating to the emotions. | In an emotional manner; displaying emotion. |
Where the eye mixes emotional and emotionally
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: emotional vs emotionally
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: emotional is /ɪˈməʊʃənəl/ while emotionally is /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “emotional” sits inside “emotionally”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8881, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
emotional is recorded at frequency rank #2,199, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪˈməʊʃənəl/. emotionally is at rank #6,682, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/.
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 8881, this pair ranks #500,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of emotional vs emotionally
Shared letters: aeilmnot. Private to "emotional": -. Private to "emotionally": y.
"emotional" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVVCVC · "emotionally" · 11 letters · shape VCVCVVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- emotional ← emmotional · emoitonal · emotinoal · emotioanl · emotionall · emotionla · emotionnal · emotoinal
- emotionally ← emmotionally · emoitonally · emotinoally · emotioanlly · emotionallyy · emotionaly · emotionalyl · emotionlaly
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "emotional" for "emotionally" ever safe?
Frequency check: "emotional" vs "emotionally" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "emotional" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "emotionally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #500,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "emotional" and "emotionally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emotion vs emotional". 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 #500,226 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.