Which to use
“verily” and “very” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,272
- “verily” frequency rank
- #106
- “very” frequency rank
- 37378
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | verily | very |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Truly; doubtless; honestly; in truth. | To a great extent or degree. |
Where the eye mixes verily and very
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. verily runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against very's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between verily and very
A purely visual mix-up. verily (/ˈvɛɹ.əl.i/) and very (/ˈvɛɹi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37378, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
verily is recorded at frequency rank #37,272, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈvɛɹ.əl.i/. very is at rank #106, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈvɛɹi/.
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 37378, this pair ranks #295,082 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of verily vs very
Shared letters: ervy. Private to "verily": il. Private to "very": -.
"verily" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "very" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "verily" and "very" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "verily" or "very"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "verily" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "very" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #295,082 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "verily" and "very" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verily vs verity". 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 #295,082 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.