Which to use
“sully” is a verb and “surely” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,227
- “sully” frequency rank
- #2,766
- “surely” frequency rank
- 27993
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sully | surely |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To soil or stain; to dirty. | Without fail. |
Where the eye mixes sully and surely
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sully with surely
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sully is /ˈsʌli/ while surely is /ˈʃɔːli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27993, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sully is recorded at frequency rank #25,227, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈsʌli/. surely is at rank #2,766, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈʃɔːli/.
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 27993, this pair ranks #374,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sully vs surely
Shared letters: lsuy. Private to "sully": -. Private to "surely": er.
"sully" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "surely" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sully" and "surely" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sully" or "surely"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "sully" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "surely" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sully" and "surely" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sully vs surry". 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 #374,558 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.