Which to use
“unbelievable” is an adjective and “unbelievably” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,310
- “unbelievable” frequency rank
- #16,815
- “unbelievably” frequency rank
- 23125
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | unbelievable | unbelievably |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Not to be believed. | In a manner that one does not or cannot believe. |
Letter map: unbelievable vs unbelievably
Shared letters muted; letters that set unbelievable and unbelievably apart highlighted. Shared run: 11. unbelievable and unbelievably follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: unbelievable vs unbelievably
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: unbelievable is anadjective and unbelievablyanadverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “unbelievable” becomes y in “unbelievably”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23125, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
unbelievable is recorded at frequency rank #6,310, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˌʌnbɪˈliːvəbl̩/. unbelievably is at rank #16,815, 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 23125, this pair ranks #411,589 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of unbelievable vs unbelievably
Shared letters: abeilnuv. Private to "unbelievable": -. Private to "unbelievably": y.
"unbelievable" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVVCVCCV · "unbelievably" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- unbelievable ← nubelievable · ubnelievable · unbbelievable · unbeilevable · unbeleivable · unbelieavble · unbelievabble · unbelievabel
- unbelievably ← nubelievably · ubnelievably · unbbelievably · unbeilevably · unbeleivably · unbelieavbly · unbelievabbly · unbelievablly
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "unbelievable" and "unbelievably" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "unbelievable" or "unbelievably" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "unbelievable" and "unbelievably".
- Full dictionary entry for "unbelievable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "unbelievably" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #411,589 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #411,589 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.