sufficiencyvssufficientlyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: sufficiency is a noun, sufficiently is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sufficiency” is a noun and “sufficiently” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,039
“sufficiency” frequency rank
#9,675
“sufficiently” frequency rank
37714
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sufficiency sufficiently
Definition The quality or condition of being sufficient. In a sufficient manner; enough.

Letter map: sufficiency vs sufficiently

Shared letters muted; letters that set sufficiency and sufficiently apart highlighted. Shared run: 10.

11 ch
sufficiency
12 ch
sufficiently

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sufficiency is anoun and sufficientlyanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37714, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sufficiency is recorded at frequency rank #28,039, classified as anoun. sufficiently is at rank #9,675, tagged as anadv, pronounced /səˈfɪʃəntli/.

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 37714, this pair ranks #292,151 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sufficiency vs sufficiently

Shared letters: cefinsuy. Private to "sufficiency": -. Private to "sufficiently": lt.

"sufficiency" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCCV  ·  "sufficiently" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sufficiencysfuficiency · ssufficiency · suffciiency · sufficciency · sufficeincy · sufficiecny · sufficienccy · sufficiencyy
  • sufficientlysfuficiently · ssufficiently · suffciiently · sufficciently · sufficeintly · sufficienlty · sufficienntly · sufficientlly

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sufficiency" and "sufficiently" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sufficiency" is a noun and "sufficiently" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "sufficiency" or "sufficiently"?
"sufficiently" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,675 in our English list, against #28,039 for "sufficiency". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list