Which to use
“fined” is a verb and “finely” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,211
- “fined” frequency rank
- #14,537
- “finely” frequency rank
- 25748
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fined | finely |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of fine | So as to produce a fine texture; into small, thin, or delicate pieces. |
Where the eye mixes fined and finely
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fined runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against finely's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fined vs finely
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fined is /faɪnd/ while finely is /ˈfaɪnli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25748, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fined is recorded at frequency rank #11,211, classified as averb, pronounced /faɪnd/. finely is at rank #14,537, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈfaɪnli/.
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 25748, this pair ranks #391,934 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fined vs finely
Shared letters: efin. Private to "fined": d. Private to "finely": ly.
"fined" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "finely" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fined" for "finely" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "fined" or "finely" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fined" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "finely" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,934 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fined" and "finely" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feely vs finely". 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 #391,934 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.