Which to use
“sing” is a verb and “singly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,810
- “sing” frequency rank
- #40,448
- “singly” frequency rank
- 43258
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sing | singly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To produce musical or harmonious sounds with one’s voice. | In a single or unaccompanied manner; without a companion. |
Where the eye mixes sing and singly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between sing and singly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sing is /sɪŋ/ while singly is /ˈsɪŋ.ɡli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “sing” sits inside “singly”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sing is recorded at frequency rank #2,810, classified as averb, pronounced /sɪŋ/. singly is at rank #40,448, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈsɪŋ.ɡli/.
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 43258, this pair ranks #241,714 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sing vs singly
Shared letters: gins. Private to "sing": -. Private to "singly": ly.
"sing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "singly" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sing" and "singly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "sing" or "singly" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "sing" and "singly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "singly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #241,714 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sing" and "singly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "singlet vs singly". 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 #241,714 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.