Which to use
“mechanical” is an adjective and “mechanically” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,099
- “mechanical” frequency rank
- #18,367
- “mechanically” frequency rank
- 22466
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mechanical | mechanically |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Characteristic of someone who does manual labour for a living; coarse, vulgar. | From a mechanical point of view. |
Where the eye mixes mechanical and mechanically
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: mechanical vs mechanically
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mechanical is /məˈkænɪkəl/ while mechanically is /məˈkænɪkli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mechanical” sits inside “mechanically”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mechanical is recorded at frequency rank #4,099, classified as anadj, pronounced /məˈkænɪkəl/. mechanically is at rank #18,367, tagged as anadv, pronounced /məˈkænɪkli/.
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 22466, this pair ranks #416,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mechanical vs mechanically
Shared letters: acehilmn. Private to "mechanical": -. Private to "mechanically": y.
"mechanical" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVC · "mechanically" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- mechanical ← emchanical · mcehanical · mecahnical · mecchanical · mechaincal · mechancial · mechaniacl · mechanicall
- mechanically ← emchanically · mcehanically · mecahnically · mecchanically · mechaincally · mechancially · mechaniaclly · mechanicallyy
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mechanical" for "mechanically" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "mechanical" or "mechanically" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mechanical" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mechanically" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mechanical" and "mechanically" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mechanic vs mechanical". 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 #416,373 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.