Which to use
“lately” and “latterly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,568
- “lately” frequency rank
- #38,938
- “latterly” frequency rank
- 42506
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lately | latterly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Recently; not long ago; of late; not long since. | In a latter manner |
Letter map: lately vs latterly
Shared letters muted; letters that set lately and latterly apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. lately runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against latterly's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Spelling & dictionary notes on lately vs latterly
lately and latterly are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lately is recorded at frequency rank #3,568, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈleɪt.li/. latterly is at rank #38,938, 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 42506, this pair ranks #248,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lately vs latterly
Shared letters: aelty. Private to "lately": -. Private to "latterly": r.
"lately" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "latterly" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lately" for "latterly" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "lately" or "latterly" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "lately" and "latterly". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "lately" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "latterly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #248,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lately" and "latterly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lally vs lately". 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 #248,573 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.