Which to use
“purported” is an adjective and “purportedly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,951
- “purported” frequency rank
- #29,427
- “purportedly” frequency rank
- 49378
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | purported | purportedly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Supposed, or assumed to be. | As appears to be true or is stated or accepted to be (though might not be so). |
Where the eye mixes purported and purportedly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. purported runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCVC) against purportedly's 11 (CVCCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between purported and purportedly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: purported is /pəɹˈpɔɹ.tɪd/ while purportedly is /pə(ɹ)ˈpɔː(ɹ).təd.li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “purported” sits inside “purportedly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
purported is recorded at frequency rank #19,951, classified as anadj, pronounced /pəɹˈpɔɹ.tɪd/. purportedly is at rank #29,427, tagged as anadv, pronounced /pə(ɹ)ˈpɔː(ɹ).təd.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 49378, this pair ranks #184,202 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of purported vs purportedly
Shared letters: deoprtu. Private to "purported": -. Private to "purportedly": ly.
"purported" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC · "purportedly" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- purported ← ppurported · pruported · puprorted · puroprted · purporetd · purporrted · purportde · purportedd
- purportedly ← ppurportedly · pruportedly · puprortedly · puroprtedly · purporetdly · purporrtedly · purportdely · purporteddly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "purported" and "purportedly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "purported" vs "purportedly" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "purported" and "purportedly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "purported" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "purportedly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #184,202 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "purported" and "purportedly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "purported vs purposed". 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 #184,202 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.