rich vs richly, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“rich” is an adjective and “richly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,318
“rich” frequency rank: #20,479
“richly” frequency rank: 21797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	rich	richly
Definition	Wealthy: having a lot of money and possessions.	In a luxurious manner; full of majesty or expression:

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set rich and richly apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

rich

6 ch

richly

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rich is /ɹɪt͡ʃ/ while richly is /ˈɹɪt͡ʃli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “rich” sits inside “richly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21797, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rich is recorded at frequency rank #1,318, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɹɪt͡ʃ/. richly is at rank #20,479, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈɹɪt͡ʃli/.

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 21797, this pair ranks #421,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rich vs richly

Shared letters: chir. Private to "rich": -. Private to "richly": ly.

"rich" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "richly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

rich ← irch · rcih · ricch · richh · rihc · rrich
richly ← irchly · rcihly · ricchly · richhly · richlly · richlyy · richyl · riclhy

Frequency comparison

rich#1,318

richly#20,479

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rich" and "richly" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "rich" or "richly"?

"rich" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,318 in our English list, against #20,479 for "richly". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering rich vs richly

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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