Which to use
“modest” is an adjective and “modestly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,811
- “modest” frequency rank
- #26,890
- “modestly” frequency rank
- 33701
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | modest | modestly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Not bragging or boasting about oneself or one's achievements; unpretentious, humble. | In a modest manner; with humility. |
Letter map: modest vs modestly
Shared letters muted; letters that set modest and modestly apart highlighted. Shared run: 6.
Part-of-speech tell for modest / modestly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: modest is anadjective and modestlyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “modest” sits inside “modestly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
modest is recorded at frequency rank #6,811, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɑdəst/. modestly is at rank #26,890, 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 33701, this pair ranks #327,132 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of modest vs modestly
Shared letters: demost. Private to "modest": -. Private to "modestly": ly.
"modest" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "modestly" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "modest" and "modestly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "modest" or "modestly" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've compared "modest" and "modestly". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "modest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "modestly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #327,132 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "modest" and "modestly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modestly vs Modesto". 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 #327,132 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.