Which to use
“marginal” is an adjective and “marginally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,069
- “marginal” frequency rank
- #20,995
- “marginally” frequency rank
- 32064
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | marginal | marginally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of, relating to, or located at or near a margin or edge; also figurative usages of location and margin (edge). | In a marginal manner, or to a marginal extent; barely sufficiently; slightly. |
Where the eye mixes marginal and marginally
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. marginal runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against marginally's 10 (CVCCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: marginal vs marginally
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: marginal is /ˈmɑː.d͡ʒɪ.nəl/ while marginally is /ˈmɑɹd͡ʒɪnəli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “marginal” sits inside “marginally”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
marginal is recorded at frequency rank #11,069, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɑː.d͡ʒɪ.nəl/. marginally is at rank #20,995, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈmɑɹd͡ʒɪnəli/.
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 32064, this pair ranks #340,937 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of marginal vs marginally
Shared letters: agilmnr. Private to "marginal": -. Private to "marginally": y.
"marginal" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "marginally" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- marginal ← amrginal · magrinal · margginal · margianl · marginall · marginla · marginnal · margnial
- marginally ← amrginally · magrinally · margginally · margianlly · marginallyy · marginaly · marginalyl · marginlaly
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "marginal" and "marginally" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "marginal" vs "marginally" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "marginal" and "marginally" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "marginal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "marginally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #340,937 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "marginal" and "marginally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "magically vs marginally". 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 #340,937 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.