Which to use
“intensely” and “intently” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,572
- “intensely” frequency rank
- #30,100
- “intently” frequency rank
- 44672
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | intensely | intently |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In an intense manner. | In an intent or focused manner. |
Where the eye mixes intensely and intently
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. intensely runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVCV) against intently's 8 (VCCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses intensely with intently
A purely visual mix-up. intensely (/ɪnˈtɛnsli/) and intently (/ɪnˈtɛntli/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
intensely is recorded at frequency rank #14,572, classified as anadv, pronounced /ɪnˈtɛnsli/. intently is at rank #30,100, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɪnˈtɛntli/.
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 44672, this pair ranks #228,381 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of intensely vs intently
Shared letters: eilnty. Private to "intensely": s. Private to "intently": -.
"intensely" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV · "intently" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "intensely" for "intently" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "intensely" or "intently" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "intensely" and "intently" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "intensely" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intently" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #228,381 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "intensely" and "intently" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intensely vs inversely". 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 #228,381 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.