Which to use
“regular” is an adjective and “regularly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,205
- “regular” frequency rank
- #2,911
- “regularly” frequency rank
- 4116
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | regular | regularly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bound by religious rule; belonging to a monastic or religious order (often as opposed to secular). | With constant frequency or pattern. |
Where the eye mixes regular and regularly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: regular vs regularly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: regular is /ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə(ɹ)/ while regularly is /ˈɹɛɡjʊləli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “regular” sits inside “regularly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
regular is recorded at frequency rank #1,205, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈɹɛɡ.jʊ.lə(ɹ)/. regularly is at rank #2,911, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈɹɛɡjʊləli/.
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 4116, this pair ranks #519,943 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of regular vs regularly
Shared letters: aeglru. Private to "regular": -. Private to "regularly": y.
"regular" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "regularly" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "regular" and "regularly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "regular" or "regularly"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "regular" and "regularly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "regular" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "regularly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #519,943 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "regular" and "regularly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regularity vs regularly". 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 #519,943 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.