Which to use
“external” is an adjective and “externally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,893
- “external” frequency rank
- #19,593
- “externally” frequency rank
- 22486
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | external | externally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Outside of something; on the exterior. | on the surface or the outside |
Letter map: external vs externally
Shared letters muted; letters that set external and externally apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Part-of-speech tell for external / externally
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: external is anadjective and externallyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “external” sits inside “externally”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22486, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
external is recorded at frequency rank #2,893, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪkˈstɜː.nəl/. externally is at rank #19,593, 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 22486, this pair ranks #416,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of external vs externally
Shared letters: aelnrtx. Private to "external": -. Private to "externally": y.
"external" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "externally" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- external ← etxernal · exetrnal · extenral · exteranl · externall · externla · externnal · exterrnal
- externally ← etxernally · exetrnally · extenrally · exteranlly · externallyy · externaly · externalyl · externlaly
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "external" and "externally" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "external" or "externally"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "external" and "externally".
- Full dictionary entry for "external" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "externally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "external" and "externally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eternally vs externally". 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 #416,226 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.