Which to use
“legal” is an adjective and “legally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #878
- “legal” frequency rank
- #5,058
- “legally” frequency rank
- 5936
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | legal | legally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relating to the law or to lawyers. | As permitted by law; not contrary to law. |
Where the eye mixes legal and legally
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. legal runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against legally's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses legal with legally
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: legal is /ˈliː.ɡəl/ while legally is /ˈliːɡəli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “legal” sits inside “legally”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5936, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
legal is recorded at frequency rank #878, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈliː.ɡəl/. legally is at rank #5,058, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈliːɡəli/.
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 5936, this pair ranks #513,435 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of legal vs legally
Shared letters: aegl. Private to "legal": -. Private to "legally": y.
"legal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "legally" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "legal" for "legally" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "legal" or "legally" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "legal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "legally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #513,435 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "legal" and "legally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lally vs legally". 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 #513,435 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.