Which to use
“shocking” is an adjective and “shockingly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,099
- “shocking” frequency rank
- #25,573
- “shockingly” frequency rank
- 31672
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shocking | shockingly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Inspiring shock; startling. | In a shocking manner. |
Letter map: shocking vs shockingly
Shared letters muted; letters that set shocking and shockingly apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Grammar separator: shocking vs shockingly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shocking is anadjective and shockinglyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “shocking” sits inside “shockingly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shocking is recorded at frequency rank #6,099, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈʃɒkɪŋ/. shockingly is at rank #25,573, tagged as anadv.
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 31672, this pair ranks #344,216 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of shocking vs shockingly
Shared letters: cghiknos. Private to "shocking": -. Private to "shockingly": ly.
"shocking" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC · "shockingly" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- shocking ← hsocking · shcoking · shhocking · shoccking · shocikng · shockign · shockingg · shockinng
- shockingly ← hsockingly · shcokingly · shhockingly · shocckingly · shocikngly · shockignly · shockinggly · shockinglly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shocking" and "shockingly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "shocking" or "shockingly" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "shocking" and "shockingly".
- Full dictionary entry for "shocking" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "shockingly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #344,216 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shocking" and "shockingly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shocking vs shorting". 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 #344,216 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.