Which to use
“negative” is an adjective and “negatively” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,700
- “negative” frequency rank
- #11,429
- “negatively” frequency rank
- 13129
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | negative | negatively |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Not positive or neutral; bad; undesirable; unfavourable. | In a negative manner; so as to be damaging or not positive. |
Letter map: negative vs negatively
Shared letters muted; letters that set negative and negatively apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Part-of-speech tell for negative / negatively
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: negative is anadjective and negativelyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “negative” sits inside “negatively”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13129, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
negative is recorded at frequency rank #1,700, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈnɛɡ.ə.tɪv/. negatively is at rank #11,429, 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 13129, this pair ranks #477,612 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of negative vs negatively
Shared letters: aegintv. Private to "negative": -. Private to "negatively": ly.
"negative" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "negatively" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- negative ← engative · neagtive · negaitve · negatiev · negativve · negattive · negatvie · neggative
- negatively ← engatively · neagtively · negaitvely · negatievly · negativelly · negativelyy · negativeyl · negativley
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "negative" for "negatively" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "negative" or "negatively" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "negative" and "negatively".
- Full dictionary entry for "negative" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "negatively" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #477,612 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "negative" and "negatively" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "natively vs negatively". 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 #477,612 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.