silent vs silently, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,335
“silent” frequency rank: #13,424
“silently” frequency rank: 16759
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	silent	silently
Definition	Free from sound or noise; absolutely still; perfectly quiet.	In a silent manner; making no noise.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set silent and silently apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

silent

8 ch

silently

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: silent is /ˈsaɪlənt/ while silently is /ˈsaɪləntli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “silent” sits inside “silently”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16759, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

silent is recorded at frequency rank #3,335, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsaɪlənt/. silently is at rank #13,424, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈsaɪləntli/.

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 16759, this pair ranks #455,748 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of silent vs silently

Shared letters: eilnst. Private to "silent": -. Private to "silently": y.

"silent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "silently" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

silent ← islent · sielnt · silennt · silentt · siletn · sillent · silnet · slient
silently ← islently · sielntly · silenlty · silenntly · silentlly · silentlyy · silenttly · silentyl

Frequency comparison

silent#3,335

silently#13,424

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "silent" and "silently" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "silent" or "silently"?

"silent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,335 in our English list, against #13,424 for "silently". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering silent vs silently

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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