Which to use
“latter” is an adjective and “latterly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,686
- “latter” frequency rank
- #38,938
- “latterly” frequency rank
- 41624
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | latter | latterly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relating to or being the second of two items. | In a latter manner |
Letter map: latter vs latterly
Shared letters muted; letters that set latter and latterly apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. latter runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against latterly's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for latter / latterly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: latter is anadjective and latterlyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “latter” sits inside “latterly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
latter is recorded at frequency rank #2,686, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlæt.ə(ɹ)/. 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 41624, this pair ranks #256,582 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of latter vs latterly
Shared letters: aelrt. Private to "latter": -. Private to "latterly": y.
"latter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "latterly" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "latter" and "latterly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "latter" vs "latterly" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "latter" vs "latterly" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "latter" 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 #256,582 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "latter" and "latterly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "latter vs laver". 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 #256,582 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.