Which to use
“reasonable” is an adjective and “reasonably” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,551
- “reasonable” frequency rank
- #6,828
- “reasonably” frequency rank
- 9379
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | reasonable | reasonably |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having the faculty of reason; rational, reasoning. | In accordance with reason. |
Where the eye mixes reasonable and reasonably
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses reasonable with reasonably
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reasonable is /ˈɹiː.zə.nə.bəl/ while reasonably is /ˈɹiː.zən.ə.bli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “reasonable” becomes y in “reasonably”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
reasonable is recorded at frequency rank #2,551, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɹiː.zə.nə.bəl/. reasonably is at rank #6,828, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈɹiː.zən.ə.bli/.
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 9379, this pair ranks #497,695 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of reasonable vs reasonably
Shared letters: abelnors. Private to "reasonable": -. Private to "reasonably": y.
"reasonable" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVCVCCV · "reasonably" · 10 letters · shape CVVCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- reasonable ← erasonable · raesonable · reaosnable · reasnoable · reasoanble · reasonabble · reasonabel · reasonablle
- reasonably ← erasonably · raesonably · reaosnably · reasnoably · reasoanbly · reasonabbly · reasonablly · reasonablyy
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "reasonable" and "reasonably" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "reasonable" or "reasonably" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "reasonable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "reasonably" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #497,695 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #497,695 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.