Which to use
“harden” is a verb and “hardly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,554
- “harden” frequency rank
- #2,834
- “hardly” frequency rank
- 17388
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harden | hardly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To become hard. | Barely, only just, almost not. |
Where the eye mixes harden and hardly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. harden (CVCCVC) and hardly (CVCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: harden vs hardly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: harden is /ˈhɑɹdn̩/ while hardly is /ˈhɑːdli/. 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 (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17388, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harden is recorded at frequency rank #14,554, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɑɹdn̩/. hardly is at rank #2,834, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈhɑːdli/.
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 17388, this pair ranks #451,734 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of harden vs hardly
Shared letters: adhr. Private to "harden": en. Private to "hardly": ly.
"harden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "hardly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harden" for "hardly" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "harden" or "hardly" 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 "harden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hardly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #451,734 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harden" and "hardly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Harbin vs harden". 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 #451,734 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.