Which to use
“modestly” is an adverb and “modesty” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,890
- “modestly” frequency rank
- #21,286
- “modesty” frequency rank
- 48176
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | modestly | modesty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In a modest manner; with humility. | The quality of being modest; having a limited and not overly high opinion of oneself and one's abilities. |
Letter map: modestly vs modesty
Shared letters muted; letters that set modestly and modesty apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.
Part-of-speech tell for modestly / modesty
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: modestly is anadverb and modestyanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
modestly is recorded at frequency rank #26,890, classified as anadv. modesty is at rank #21,286, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɒd.ə.sti/.
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 48176, this pair ranks #195,548 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of modestly vs modesty
Shared letters: demosty. Private to "modestly": l. Private to "modesty": -.
"modestly" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV · "modesty" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "modestly" and "modesty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "modestly" or "modesty"?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "modestly" and "modesty".
- Full dictionary entry for "modestly" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "modesty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #195,548 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "modestly" and "modesty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modesty vs Moresby". 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 #195,548 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.