Which to use
“furious” is an adjective and “furiously” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,341
- “furious” frequency rank
- #22,680
- “furiously” frequency rank
- 30021
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | furious | furiously |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Feeling great anger; raging; violent. | In a furious manner; angrily. |
Where the eye mixes furious and furiously
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses furious with furiously
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: furious is /ˈfjʊə.ɹɪəs/ while furiously is /ˈfjʊə̯ɹi.ə̯sli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “furious” sits inside “furiously”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
furious is recorded at frequency rank #7,341, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfjʊə.ɹɪəs/. furiously is at rank #22,680, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈfjʊə̯ɹi.ə̯sli/.
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 30021, this pair ranks #358,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of furious vs furiously
Shared letters: fiorsu. Private to "furious": -. Private to "furiously": ly.
"furious" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC · "furiously" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "furious" and "furiously" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "furious" or "furiously"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "furious" and "furiously" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "furious" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "furiously" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #358,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "furious" and "furiously" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ferrous vs furious". 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 #358,025 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.