Which to use
“heartily” is an adverb and “hearty” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,431
- “heartily” frequency rank
- #17,625
- “hearty” frequency rank
- 50056
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heartily | hearty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In a hearty manner. | Warm and cordial towards another person. |
Where the eye mixes heartily and hearty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. heartily runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCV) against hearty's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: heartily vs hearty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heartily is /ˈhɑːtɪli/ while hearty is /ˈhɑɹti/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50056, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heartily is recorded at frequency rank #32,431, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈhɑːtɪli/. hearty is at rank #17,625, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈhɑɹti/.
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 50056, this pair ranks #177,785 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heartily vs hearty
Shared letters: aehrty. Private to "heartily": il. Private to "hearty": -.
"heartily" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV · "hearty" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "heartily" for "hearty" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "heartily" or "hearty" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "heartily" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hearty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #177,785 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heartily" and "hearty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "healthily vs heartily". 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 #177,785 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.