Which to use
“irregular” is an adjective and “irregularly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,238
- “irregular” frequency rank
- #34,548
- “irregularly” frequency rank
- 45786
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | irregular | irregularly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations. | In an irregular manner; without rule, method, or order. |
Where the eye mixes irregular and irregularly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses irregular with irregularly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: irregular is /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə/ while irregularly is /ɪˈɹɛɡjʊləli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “irregular” sits inside “irregularly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
irregular is recorded at frequency rank #11,238, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə/. irregularly is at rank #34,548, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɪˈɹɛɡjʊləli/.
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 45786, this pair ranks #217,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of irregular vs irregularly
Shared letters: aegilru. Private to "irregular": -. Private to "irregularly": y.
"irregular" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC · "irregularly" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- irregular ← iregular · irergular · irreggular · irregluar · irregualr · irregularr · irregullar · irregulra
- irregularly ← iregularly · irergularly · irreggularly · irregluarly · irregualrly · irregulalry · irregularlly · irregularlyy
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "irregular" and "irregularly" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "irregular" or "irregularly"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "irregular" and "irregularly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "irregular" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "irregularly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #217,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "irregular" and "irregularly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "irregularity vs irregularly". 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 #217,922 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.