Which to use
“nationality” is a noun and “nationally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,893
- “nationality” frequency rank
- #9,072
- “nationally” frequency rank
- 19965
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | nationality | nationally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Legal membership of a particular nation or state, by origin, birth, naturalization, ownership, allegiance or otherwise. | In a way relating to the whole nation. |
Where the eye mixes nationality and nationally
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. nationality runs 11 letters (CVCVVCVCVCV) against nationally's 10 (CVCVVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: nationality vs nationally
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nationality is /ˌnæʃ.əˈnæl.ɪ.ti/ while nationally is /ˈnæʃənəli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
nationality is recorded at frequency rank #10,893, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˌnæʃ.əˈnæl.ɪ.ti/. nationally is at rank #9,072, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈnæʃənəli/.
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 19965, this pair ranks #434,457 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of nationality vs nationally
Shared letters: ailnoty. Private to "nationality": -. Private to "nationally": -.
"nationality" · 11 letters · shape CVCVVCVCVCV · "nationally" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- nationality ← antionality · naitonality · natinoality · natioanlity · nationailty · nationalitty · nationalityy · nationaliyt
- nationally ← antionally · naitonally · natinoally · natioanlly · nationallyy · nationaly · nationalyl · nationlaly
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "nationality" for "nationally" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "nationality" or "nationally" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "nationality" and "nationally" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "nationality" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "nationally" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,457 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "nationality" and "nationally" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nationalism vs nationality". 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 #434,457 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.