Which to use
“intelligent” is an adjective and “intelligently” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,386
- “intelligent” frequency rank
- #27,182
- “intelligently” frequency rank
- 31568
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | intelligent | intelligently |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of high or especially quick cognitive capacity, bright. | In an intelligent manner. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set intelligent and intelligently apart are highlighted. They share 11 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: intelligent is anadjective and intelligentlyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “intelligent” sits inside “intelligently”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31568, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
intelligent is recorded at frequency rank #4,386, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒənt/. intelligently is at rank #27,182, 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 31568, this pair ranks #344,995 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of intelligent vs intelligently
Shared letters: egilnt. Private to "intelligent": -. Private to "intelligently": y.
"intelligent" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCC · "intelligently" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- intelligent ← inetlligent · inntelligent · inteligent · intelilgent · intellgient · intelliegnt · intelligennt · intelligentt
- intelligently ← inetlligently · inntelligently · inteligently · intelilgently · intellgiently · intelliegntly · intelligenlty · intelligenntly