Which to use
“malicious” is an adjective and “maliciously” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,739
- “malicious” frequency rank
- #34,976
- “maliciously” frequency rank
- 46715
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malicious | maliciously |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Intending to do harm; characterized by spite and malice. | In a malicious manner, or for malicious reasons. |
Letter map: malicious vs maliciously
Shared letters muted; letters that set malicious and maliciously apart highlighted. Shared run: 9. malicious runs 9 letters (CVCVCVVVC) against maliciously's 11 (CVCVCVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: malicious vs maliciously
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: malicious is anadjective and maliciouslyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “malicious” sits inside “maliciously”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malicious is recorded at frequency rank #11,739, classified as anadj, pronounced /məˈlɪʃəs/. maliciously is at rank #34,976, 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 46715, this pair ranks #209,159 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of malicious vs maliciously
Shared letters: acilmosu. Private to "malicious": -. Private to "maliciously": y.
"malicious" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVVC · "maliciously" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- malicious ← amlicious · mailcious · malciious · maliccious · maliciosu · maliciouss · maliciuos · malicoius
- maliciously ← amliciously · mailciously · malciiously · malicciously · maliciosuly · malicioulsy · maliciouslly · maliciouslyy
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "malicious" and "maliciously" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "malicious" vs "maliciously" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "malicious" and "maliciously". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "malicious" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maliciously" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #209,159 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 #209,159 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.