Which to use
“joking” is a verb and “jokingly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,703
- “joking” frequency rank
- #23,014
- “jokingly” frequency rank
- 29717
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | joking | jokingly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of joke | In a joking manner. |
Where the eye mixes joking and jokingly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. joking runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against jokingly's 8 (CVCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between joking and jokingly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: joking is /ˈd͡ʒəʊkɪŋ/ while jokingly is /ˈdʒoʊ.kɪŋ.li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “joking” sits inside “jokingly”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
joking is recorded at frequency rank #6,703, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈd͡ʒəʊkɪŋ/. jokingly is at rank #23,014, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈdʒoʊ.kɪŋ.li/.
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 29717, this pair ranks #360,646 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of joking vs jokingly
Shared letters: gijkno. Private to "joking": -. Private to "jokingly": ly.
"joking" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "jokingly" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "joking" and "jokingly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "joking" or "jokingly" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "joking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "jokingly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #360,646 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "joking" and "jokingly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jacking vs joking". 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 #360,646 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.