Which to use
“irrevocable” is an adjective and “irrevocably” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,914
- “irrevocable” frequency rank
- #38,448
- “irrevocably” frequency rank
- 77362
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | irrevocable | irrevocably |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Unable to be retracted or reversed; final. | In an irrevocable manner; in a manner which prevents the ability to be reverted, repealed, or undone. |
Where the eye mixes irrevocable and irrevocably
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. irrevocable and irrevocably follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between irrevocable and irrevocably
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: irrevocable is /ɪˈɹɛvəkəbəl/ while irrevocably is /ɪˈɹɛ.və.kə.bli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “irrevocable” becomes y in “irrevocably”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77362, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
irrevocable is recorded at frequency rank #38,914, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɪˈɹɛvəkəbəl/. irrevocably is at rank #38,448, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɪˈɹɛ.və.kə.bli/.
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 77362, this pair ranks #27,485 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of irrevocable vs irrevocably
Shared letters: abceilorv. Private to "irrevocable": -. Private to "irrevocably": y.
"irrevocable" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCCV · "irrevocably" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- irrevocable ← irervocable · irevocable · irreovcable · irrevcoable · irrevoacble · irrevocabble · irrevocabel · irrevocablle
- irrevocably ← irervocably · irevocably · irreovcably · irrevcoably · irrevoacbly · irrevocabbly · irrevocablly · irrevocablyy
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "irrevocable" for "irrevocably" ever safe?
Which is more common, "irrevocable" or "irrevocably"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "irrevocable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "irrevocably" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,485 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 #27,485 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.