savagelyvssavageryWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: savagely is a adverb, savagery is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“savagely” is an adverb and “savagery” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,542
“savagely” frequency rank
#34,273
“savagery” frequency rank
73815
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature savagely savagery
Definition In a wild, uncontrolled, or savage manner. Savage or brutal behaviour; barbarity.

Letter map: savagely vs savagery

Shared letters muted; letters that set savagely and savagery apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. savagely and savagery follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
savagely
8 ch
savagery

Part-of-speech tell for savagely / savagery

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: savagely is anadverb and savageryanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - l in “savagely” becomes r in “savagery”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73815, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

savagely is recorded at frequency rank #39,542, classified as anadv. savagery is at rank #34,273, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsæv.ɪd͡ʒ.ɹɪ/.

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 73815, this pair ranks #38,327 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of savagely vs savagery

Shared letters: aegsvy. Private to "savagely": l. Private to "savagery": r.

"savagely" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "savagery" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • savagely ← asvagely · saavgely · savaegly · savagelly · savagelyy · savageyl · savaggely · savagley
  • savagery ← asvagery · saavgery · savaegry · savagerry · savageryy · savageyr · savaggery · savagrey

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "savagely" for "savagery" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "savagely" is an adverb and "savagery" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "savagely" or "savagery"?
"savagery" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,273 in our English list, against #39,542 for "savagely". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "savagely" and "savagery".

  • Full dictionary entry for "savagely" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "savagery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,327 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "savagely" and "savagery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "savagely vs savages". 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 #38,327 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list