Which to use
“steadfast” is an adjective and “steadfastly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,323
- “steadfast” frequency rank
- #42,424
- “steadfastly” frequency rank
- 66747
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | steadfast | steadfastly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fixed or unchanging; steady. | In a steadfast manner; firmly; with conviction |
Where the eye mixes steadfast and steadfastly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. steadfast runs 9 letters (CCVVCCVCC) against steadfastly's 11 (CCVVCCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: steadfast vs steadfastly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: steadfast is /ˈstɛdfɑːst/ while steadfastly is /ˈstɛdfɑːstli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “steadfast” sits inside “steadfastly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
steadfast is recorded at frequency rank #24,323, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈstɛdfɑːst/. steadfastly is at rank #42,424, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈstɛdfɑːstli/.
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 66747, this pair ranks #66,589 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of steadfast vs steadfastly
Shared letters: adefst. Private to "steadfast": -. Private to "steadfastly": ly.
"steadfast" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCCVCC · "steadfastly" · 11 letters · shape CCVVCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- steadfast ← setadfast · ssteadfast · staedfast · steadafst · steaddfast · steadfasst · steadfastt · steadfats
- steadfastly ← setadfastly · ssteadfastly · staedfastly · steadafstly · steaddfastly · steadfaslty · steadfasstly · steadfastlly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "steadfast" and "steadfastly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "steadfast" or "steadfastly" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "steadfast" and "steadfastly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "steadfast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "steadfastly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #66,589 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #66,589 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.