Which to use
“obvious” is an adjective and “obviously” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,361
- “obvious” frequency rank
- #1,668
- “obviously” frequency rank
- 4029
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obvious | obviously |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Easily discovered, seen, or understood; self-explanatory. | In an obvious or clearly apparent manner. |
Where the eye mixes obvious and obviously
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. obvious runs 7 letters (VCCVVVC) against obviously's 9 (VCCVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses obvious with obviously
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: obvious is /ˈɑb.vi.əs/ while obviously is /ˈɒ(b).vi.əs.li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “obvious” sits inside “obviously”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obvious is recorded at frequency rank #2,361, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɑb.vi.əs/. obviously is at rank #1,668, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈɒ(b).vi.əs.li/.
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 4029, this pair ranks #520,228 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of obvious vs obviously
Shared letters: biosuv. Private to "obvious": -. Private to "obviously": ly.
"obvious" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC · "obviously" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "obvious" for "obviously" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "obvious" or "obviously" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "obvious" and "obviously" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "obvious" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "obviously" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #520,228 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obvious" and "obviously" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obvious vs odious". 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 #520,228 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.