Which to use
“miserable” is an adjective and “miserably” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,378
- “miserable” frequency rank
- #23,335
- “miserably” frequency rank
- 29713
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | miserable | miserably |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor. | In a miserable manner. |
Letter map: miserable vs miserably
Shared letters muted; letters that set miserable and miserably apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Grammar separator: miserable vs miserably
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: miserable is anadjective and miserablyanadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “miserable” becomes y in “miserably”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
miserable is recorded at frequency rank #6,378, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹəbəl/. miserably is at rank #23,335, 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 29713, this pair ranks #360,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of miserable vs miserably
Shared letters: abeilmrs. Private to "miserable": -. Private to "miserably": y.
"miserable" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV · "miserably" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "miserable" and "miserably" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "miserable" or "miserably" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "miserable" vs "miserably" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "miserable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "miserably" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #360,666 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 #360,666 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.