fittingvsfittinglyTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,053
“fitting” frequency rank
#46,464
“fittingly” frequency rank
52517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fitting fittingly
Definition That fits. In a fitting manner.

Letter map: fitting vs fittingly

Shared letters muted; letters that set fitting and fittingly apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

7 ch
fitting
9 ch
fittingly

Grammar separator: fitting vs fittingly

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fitting is anadjective and fittinglyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fitting” sits inside “fittingly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fitting is recorded at frequency rank #6,053, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɪtɪŋ/. fittingly is at rank #46,464, 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 52517, this pair ranks #156,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fitting vs fittingly

Shared letters: fgint. Private to "fitting": -. Private to "fittingly": ly.

"fitting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "fittingly" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fittingffitting · fiting · fititng · fittign · fittingg · fittinng · fittnig · ftiting
  • fittinglyffittingly · fitingly · fititngly · fittignly · fittinggly · fittinglly · fittinglyy · fittingyl

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fitting" and "fittingly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fitting" is an adjective and "fittingly" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "fitting" vs "fittingly" - which ranks higher?
"fitting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,053 in our English list, against #46,464 for "fittingly". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "fitting" and "fittingly". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fitting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fittingly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fitting" and "fittingly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fisting vs fitting". 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 #156,373 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list