excellencyvsexcellentlyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: excellency is a noun, excellently is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“excellency” is a noun and “excellently” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,228
“excellency” frequency rank
#38,831
“excellently” frequency rank
55059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excellency excellently
Definition Synonym of excellence; the quality of being excellent. In a manner that demonstrates excellence; very well.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set excellency and excellently apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch
excellency
11 ch
excellently

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: excellency is anoun and excellentlyanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

excellency is recorded at frequency rank #16,228, classified as anoun. excellently is at rank #38,831, 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 55059, this pair ranks #136,448 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of excellency vs excellently

Shared letters: celnxy. Private to "excellency": -. Private to "excellently": t.

"excellency" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV  ·  "excellently" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excellencyecxellency · exccellency · excelelncy · excelency · excellecny · excellenccy · excellencyy · excellenncy
  • excellentlyecxellently · exccellently · excelelntly · excelently · excellenlty · excellenntly · excellentlly · excellentlyy

Frequency comparison

excellency#16,228
excellently#38,831

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "excellency" and "excellently" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "excellency" is a noun and "excellently" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "excellency" or "excellently"?
"excellency" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,228 in our English list, against #38,831 for "excellently". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering excellency vs excellently

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “excellency”; for an adverb, it's “excellently”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “excellency” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list