materiallyvsmaterialsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: materially is a adverb, materials is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“materially” is an adverb and “materials” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,132
“materially” frequency rank
#1,731
“materials” frequency rank
19863
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature materially materials
Definition In a material manner; with regard to physical things or characteristics. plural of material

Letter map: materially vs materials

Shared letters muted; letters that set materially and materials apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.

10 ch
materially
9 ch
materials

Role in the sentence - materially and materials

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: materially is anadverb and materialsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19863, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

materially is recorded at frequency rank #18,132, classified as anadv. materials is at rank #1,731, tagged as anoun, pronounced /məˈtɪɹi.əlz/.

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 19863, this pair ranks #435,196 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of materially vs materials

Shared letters: aeilmrt. Private to "materially": y. Private to "materials": s.

"materially" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVCCV  ·  "materials" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • materiallyamterially · maetrially · mateirally · materailly · materiallyy · materialy · materialyl · materilaly
  • materialsamterials · maetrials · mateirals · materails · materialls · materialss · materiasl · materilas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "materially" and "materials" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "materially" is an adverb and "materials" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "materially" vs "materials" - which ranks higher?
"materials" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,731 in our English list, against #18,132 for "materially". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "materially" and "materials".

  • Full dictionary entry for "materially" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "materials" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #435,196 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "materially" and "materials" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "materialist vs materials". 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 #435,196 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list