strangelyvsstronglyTell them apart

Which to use

“strangely” and “strongly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,802
“strangely” frequency rank
#3,197
“strongly” frequency rank
14999
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature strangely strongly
Definition In a strange or coincidental manner. In a strong or powerful manner.

Where the eye mixes strangely and strongly

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
strangely
8 ch
strongly

Visual trap between strangely and strongly

A purely visual mix-up. strangely (/ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒli/) and strongly (/ˈstɹɔŋli/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

strangely is recorded at frequency rank #11,802, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒli/. strongly is at rank #3,197, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈstɹɔŋli/.

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 14999, this pair ranks #466,652 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of strangely vs strongly

Shared letters: glnrsty. Private to "strangely": ae. Private to "strongly": o.

"strangely" · 9 letters · shape CCCVCCVCV  ·  "strongly" · 8 letters · shape CCCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • strangelysrtangely · sstrangely · starngely · stragnely · stranegly · strangelly · strangelyy · strangeyl
  • stronglysrtongly · sstrongly · storngly · strnogly · strognly · stronggly · stronglly · stronglyy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "strangely" and "strongly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈstɹeɪnd͡ʒli/ versus /ˈstɹɔŋli/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "strangely" or "strongly"?
"strongly" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,197 in our English list, against #11,802 for "strangely". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "strangely" and "strongly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "strangely" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "strongly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #466,652 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "strangely" and "strongly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "strangely vs strangle". 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 #466,652 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list