Which to use
“thankful” is an adjective and “thankfully” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,990
- “thankful” frequency rank
- #9,676
- “thankfully” frequency rank
- 17666
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thankful | thankfully |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Showing appreciation or gratitude. | In a thankful manner; giving thanks. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set thankful and thankfully apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thankful is anadjective and thankfullyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “thankful” sits inside “thankfully”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thankful is recorded at frequency rank #7,990, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈθæŋkfl̩/. thankfully is at rank #9,676, 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 17666, this pair ranks #449,938 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of thankful vs thankfully
Shared letters: afhklntu. Private to "thankful": -. Private to "thankfully": y.
"thankful" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC · "thankfully" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- thankful ← htankful · tahnkful · thaknful · thanfkul · thankfful · thankflu · thankfull · thankkful
- thankfully ← htankfully · tahnkfully · thaknfully · thanfkully · thankffully · thankfluly · thankfullyy · thankfuly
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "thankful" and "thankfully" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "thankful" or "thankfully"?
Remembering thankful vs thankfully
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “thankful”; for an adverb, it's “thankfully”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “thankful” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable