Which to use
“mortal” is an adjective and “mortally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,831
- “mortal” frequency rank
- #39,439
- “mortally” frequency rank
- 48270
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mortal | mortally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Susceptible to death by aging, sickness, injury, or wound; not immortal. | Fatally; in such a way as to cause death. |
Where the eye mixes mortal and mortally
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. mortal runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against mortally's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between mortal and mortally
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mortal is /ˈmɔː.təl/ while mortally is /ˈmɔːtəli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mortal” sits inside “mortally”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mortal is recorded at frequency rank #8,831, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈmɔː.təl/. mortally is at rank #39,439, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈmɔːtəli/.
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 48270, this pair ranks #194,693 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mortal vs mortally
Shared letters: almort. Private to "mortal": -. Private to "mortally": y.
"mortal" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "mortally" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mortal" for "mortally" ever safe?
Which is more common, "mortal" or "mortally"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "mortal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mortally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #194,693 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mortal" and "mortally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "morsel vs mortal". 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 #194,693 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.