Which to use
“publicity” is a noun and “publicly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,172
- “publicity” frequency rank
- #4,479
- “publicly” frequency rank
- 11651
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | publicity | publicly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Advertising or other activity designed to rouse public interest in something. | In public, openly, in an open and public manner. |
Where the eye mixes publicity and publicly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses publicity with publicly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: publicity is /pʌbˈlɪsɪti/ while publicly is /ˈpʌblɪkli/. 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 11651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
publicity is recorded at frequency rank #7,172, classified as anoun, pronounced /pʌbˈlɪsɪti/. publicly is at rank #4,479, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈpʌblɪkli/.
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 11651, this pair ranks #485,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of publicity vs publicly
Shared letters: bcilpuy. Private to "publicity": t. Private to "publicly": -.
"publicity" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV · "publicly" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "publicity" for "publicly" ever safe?
Frequency check: "publicity" vs "publicly" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "publicity" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "publicly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #485,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "publicity" and "publicly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "publically vs publicly". 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 #485,876 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.