Which to use
“stunning” is an adjective and “stunningly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,556
- “stunning” frequency rank
- #35,100
- “stunningly” frequency rank
- 39656
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stunning | stunningly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having an effect that stuns. | So as to stun or amaze. |
Letter map: stunning vs stunningly
Shared letters muted; letters that set stunning and stunningly apart highlighted. Shared run: 8. stunning runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCC) against stunningly's 10 (CCVCCVCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - stunning and stunningly
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: stunning is anadjective and stunninglyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “stunning” sits inside “stunningly”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stunning is recorded at frequency rank #4,556, classified as anadj. stunningly is at rank #35,100, tagged as anadv.
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 39656, this pair ranks #274,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stunning vs stunningly
Shared letters: ginstu. Private to "stunning": -. Private to "stunningly": ly.
"stunning" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC · "stunningly" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- stunning ← sstunning · stnuning · sttunning · stuning · stuninng · stunnign · stunningg · stunninng
- stunningly ← sstunningly · stnuningly · sttunningly · stuningly · stuninngly · stunnignly · stunninggly · stunninglly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "stunning" and "stunningly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "stunning" vs "stunningly" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "stunning" and "stunningly".
- Full dictionary entry for "stunning" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stunningly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #274,707 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stunning" and "stunningly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shunning vs stunning". 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 #274,707 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.