quicken vs quickly, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“quicken” is a verb and “quickly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,655
“quicken” frequency rank: #1,094
“quickly” frequency rank: 35749
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	quicken	quickly
Definition	Senses relating to life or states of activity.	Rapidly; with speed; fast; with expedition.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set quicken and quickly apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

quicken

7 ch

quickly

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: quicken is /ˈkwɪk(ə)n/ while quickly is /ˈkwɪkli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quicken is recorded at frequency rank #34,655, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkwɪk(ə)n/. quickly is at rank #1,094, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈkwɪkli/.

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 35749, this pair ranks #309,264 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of quicken vs quickly

Shared letters: cikqu. Private to "quicken": en. Private to "quickly": ly.

"quicken" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "quickly" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

quicken ← qiucken · qquicken · quciken · quiccken · quicekn · quickenn · quickken · quickne
quickly ← qiuckly · qquickly · qucikly · quicckly · quickkly · quicklly · quicklyy · quickyl

Frequency comparison

quicken#34,655

quickly#1,094

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quicken" and "quickly" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "quicken" or "quickly"?

"quickly" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,094 in our English list, against #34,655 for "quicken". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering quicken vs quickly

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “quicken”; for an adverb, it's “quickly”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “quicken” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable