interestingvsinterestinglyWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,083
“interesting” frequency rank
#12,998
“interestingly” frequency rank
14081
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature interesting interestingly
Definition Of concern; affecting, important. In an interesting way.

Letter map: interesting vs interestingly

Shared letters muted; letters that set interesting and interestingly apart highlighted. Shared run: 11.

11 ch
interesting
13 ch
interestingly

Grammar separator: interesting vs interestingly

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: interesting is anadjective and interestinglyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “interesting” sits inside “interestingly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14081, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

interesting is recorded at frequency rank #1,083, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɪntɹəstɪŋ/. interestingly is at rank #12,998, 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 14081, this pair ranks #472,156 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of interesting vs interestingly

Shared letters: eginrst. Private to "interesting": -. Private to "interestingly": ly.

"interesting" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVCC  ·  "interestingly" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • interestinginetresting · innteresting · inteersting · interesitng · interessting · interestign · interestingg · interestinng
  • interestinglyinetrestingly · innterestingly · inteerstingly · interesitngly · interesstingly · interestignly · interestinggly · interestinglly

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "interesting" and "interestingly" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "interesting" is an adjective and "interestingly" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "interesting" vs "interestingly" - which ranks higher?
"interesting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,083 in our English list, against #12,998 for "interestingly". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "interesting" vs "interestingly" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "interesting" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "interestingly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #472,156 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • 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 #472,156 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list