homelyvshotlyWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#32,848
“homely” frequency rank
#31,602
“hotly” frequency rank
64450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature homely hotly
Definition Characteristic of, belonging to, or befitting a home; domestic, cosy. With great amounts of heat.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set homely and hotly apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
homely
5 ch
hotly

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: homely is anadjective and hotlyanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

homely is recorded at frequency rank #32,848, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈhəʊmli/. hotly is at rank #31,602, 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 64450, this pair ranks #77,648 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of homely vs hotly

Shared letters: hloy. Private to "homely": em. Private to "hotly": t.

"homely" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "hotly" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • homelyhhomely · hmoely · hoemly · homelly · homelyy · homeyl · homley · hommely
  • hotlyhhotly · holty · hotlly · hotlyy · hottly · hotyl · htoly · ohtly

Frequency comparison

homely#32,848
hotly#31,602

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "homely" and "hotly" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "homely" is an adjective and "hotly" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "homely" or "hotly"?
"hotly" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,602 in our English list, against #32,848 for "homely". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering homely vs hotly

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “homely”; for an adverb, it's “hotly”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “homely” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list