thickevsthicklyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: thicke is a adjective, thickly is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

By · Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org ·

Which to use

“thicke” is an adjective and “thickly” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,202
“thicke” frequency rank
#45,698
“thickly” frequency rank
83900
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thicke thickly
Definition Obsolete spelling of thick. In a thick manner.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set thicke and thickly apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
thicke
7 ch
thickly

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thicke is anadjective and thicklyanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thicke is recorded at frequency rank #38,202, classified as anadj. thickly is at rank #45,698, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈθɪkli/.

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 83900, this pair ranks #12,968 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of thicke vs thickly

Shared letters: chikt. Private to "thicke": e. Private to "thickly": ly.

"thicke" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "thickly" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thicke ← hticke · thcike · thhicke · thiccke · thicek · thickke · thikce · tihcke
  • thickly ← htickly · thcikly · thhickly · thicckly · thickkly · thicklly · thicklyy · thickyl

Frequency comparison

thicke#38,202
thickly#45,698

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "thicke" and "thickly" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thicke" is an adjective and "thickly" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "thicke" or "thickly"?
"thicke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,202 in our English list, against #45,698 for "thickly". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering thicke vs thickly

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “thicke”; for an adverb, it's “thickly”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “thicke” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list