Which to use
“slight” is an adjective and “slightly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,982
- “slight” frequency rank
- #1,839
- “slightly” frequency rank
- 6821
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | slight | slightly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Minor; small in amount | Slenderly; delicately. |
Where the eye mixes slight and slightly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses slight with slightly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: slight is /slaɪt/ while slightly is /ˈslaɪtli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “slight” sits inside “slightly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6821, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
slight is recorded at frequency rank #4,982, classified as anadj, pronounced /slaɪt/. slightly is at rank #1,839, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈslaɪtli/.
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 6821, this pair ranks #509,819 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of slight vs slightly
Shared letters: ghilst. Private to "slight": -. Private to "slightly": y.
"slight" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC · "slightly" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "slight" and "slightly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "slight" or "slightly" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "slight" and "slightly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "slight" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "slightly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #509,819 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "slight" and "slightly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "slight vs Sligo". 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 #509,819 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.