Which to use
“unnatural” is an adjective and “unnaturally” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,541
- “unnatural” frequency rank
- #47,397
- “unnaturally” frequency rank
- 62938
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | unnatural | unnaturally |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Not natural. | In an unnatural manner; to an unnatural extent. |
Where the eye mixes unnatural and unnaturally
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: unnatural is /ʌnˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/ while unnaturally is /ʌnˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “unnatural” sits inside “unnaturally”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62938, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
unnatural is recorded at frequency rank #15,541, classified as anadj, pronounced /ʌnˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹəl/. unnaturally is at rank #47,397, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ʌnˈnæt͡ʃ.(ə.)ɹə.li/.
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 62938, this pair ranks #85,706 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of unnatural vs unnaturally
Shared letters: alnrtu. Private to "unnatural": -. Private to "unnaturally": y.
"unnatural" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC · "unnaturally" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- unnatural ← nunatural · unantural · unatural · unnatrual · unnattural · unnatuarl · unnaturall · unnaturla
- unnaturally ← nunaturally · unanturally · unaturally · unnatrually · unnatturally · unnatuarlly · unnaturallyy · unnaturaly