Which to use
“various” is a determiner and “variously” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #799
- “various” frequency rank
- #22,850
- “variously” frequency rank
- 23649
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | various | variously |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | More than one (of an indeterminate set of things). | In various ways; diversely. |
Letter map: various vs variously
Shared letters muted; letters that set various and variously apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. various runs 7 letters (CVCVVVC) against variously's 9 (CVCVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for various / variously
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: various is adeterminer and variouslyanadverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “various” sits inside “variously”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
various is recorded at frequency rank #799, classified as adet, pronounced /ˈvɛəɹi.əs/. variously is at rank #22,850, 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 23649, this pair ranks #407,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of various vs variously
Shared letters: aiorsuv. Private to "various": -. Private to "variously": ly.
"various" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC · "variously" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "various" and "variously" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "various" or "variously"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "various" and "variously".
- Full dictionary entry for "various" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "variously" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "various" and "variously" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "variously vs vicariously". 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 #407,772 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.