financialvsfinanciallyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: financial is a adjective, financially is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“financial” is an adjective and “financially” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#874
“financial” frequency rank
#7,339
“financially” frequency rank
8213
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature financial financially
Definition Related to finances. In terms of finance or money.

Where the spellings diverge

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

9 ch
financial
11 ch
financially

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: financial is anadjective and financiallyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “financial” sits inside “financially”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

financial is recorded at frequency rank #874, classified as anadj, pronounced /faɪˈnænʃəl/. financially is at rank #7,339, 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 8213, this pair ranks #503,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of financial vs financially

Shared letters: acfiln. Private to "financial": -. Private to "financially": y.

"financial" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC  ·  "financially" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • financialffinancial · fianncial · finacnial · financail · financcial · financiall · financila · finanical
  • financiallyffinancially · fianncially · finacnially · financailly · financcially · financiallyy · financialy · financialyl

Frequency comparison

financial#874
financially#7,339

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "financial" and "financially" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "financial" is an adjective and "financially" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "financial" or "financially"?
"financial" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #874 in our English list, against #7,339 for "financially". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering financial vs financially

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “financial”; for an adverb, it's “financially”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “financial” 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