Which to use
“purposed” is an adjective and “purposely” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,855
- “purposed” frequency rank
- #16,316
- “purposely” frequency rank
- 64171
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | purposed | purposely |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Intentional, deliberate. | On purpose; intentionally. |
Where the eye mixes purposed and purposely
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between purposed and purposely
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: purposed is /ˈpəːpəst/ while purposely is /ˈpɝpəsli/. 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 (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64171, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
purposed is recorded at frequency rank #47,855, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpəːpəst/. purposely is at rank #16,316, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈpɝpəsli/.
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 64171, this pair ranks #79,112 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of purposed vs purposely
Shared letters: eoprsu. Private to "purposed": d. Private to "purposely": ly.
"purposed" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "purposely" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "purposed" and "purposely" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "purposed" vs "purposely" - 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 "purposed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "purposely" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,112 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "purposed" and "purposely" 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 #79,112 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.