prominent vs prominently

Which to use

“prominent” is an adjective and “prominently” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,110
“prominent” frequency rank: #17,005
“prominently” frequency rank: 21115
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	prominent	prominently
Definition	Standing out, or projecting; jutting; protuberant.	In a prominent manner.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set prominent and prominently apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch

prominent

11 ch

prominently

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: prominent is /ˈpɹɑmɪnənt/ while prominently is /ˈpɹɑmɪnəntli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “prominent” sits inside “prominently”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21115, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prominent is recorded at frequency rank #4,110, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpɹɑmɪnənt/. prominently is at rank #17,005, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈpɹɑmɪnəntli/.

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 21115, this pair ranks #426,265 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prominent vs prominently

Shared letters: eimnoprt. Private to "prominent": -. Private to "prominently": ly.

"prominent" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCC · "prominently" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

prominent ← porminent · pprominent · prmoinent · proimnent · promiennt · prominennt · prominentt · prominetn
prominently ← porminently · pprominently · prmoinently · proimnently · promienntly · prominenlty · prominenntly · prominentlly

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prominent" and "prominently" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prominent" is an adjective and "prominently" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "prominent" or "prominently"?

"prominent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,110 in our English list, against #17,005 for "prominently". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.