Which to use
“ghostly” is an adjective and “grossly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,168
- “ghostly” frequency rank
- #18,841
- “grossly” frequency rank
- 43009
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ghostly | grossly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of or pertaining to ghosts or spirits. | Greatly; to a large degree, especially one large enough to be frankly appreciable. |
Where the eye mixes ghostly and grossly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ghostly and grossly follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: ghostly vs grossly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ghostly is /ˈɡoʊstli/ while grossly is /ˈɡɹoʊsli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ghostly is recorded at frequency rank #24,168, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡoʊstli/. grossly is at rank #18,841, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈɡɹoʊsli/.
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 43009, this pair ranks #244,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ghostly vs grossly
Shared letters: glosy. Private to "ghostly": ht. Private to "grossly": r.
"ghostly" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV · "grossly" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ghostly" and "grossly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "ghostly" or "grossly" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ghostly" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grossly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #244,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ghostly" and "grossly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grosser vs grossly". 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 #244,074 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.