Which to use
“weaken” is a verb and “weakly” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,305
- “weaken” frequency rank
- #23,432
- “weakly” frequency rank
- 38737
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | weaken | weakly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make weaker or less strong. | Frail, sickly or of a delicate constitution; weak. |
Where the eye mixes weaken and weakly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. weaken (CVVCVC) and weakly (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: weaken vs weakly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: weaken is /ˈwikən/ while weakly is /ˈwiːkli/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38737, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
weaken is recorded at frequency rank #15,305, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈwikən/. weakly is at rank #23,432, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈwiːkli/.
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 38737, this pair ranks #283,229 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of weaken vs weakly
Shared letters: aekw. Private to "weaken": n. Private to "weakly": ly.
"weaken" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "weakly" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "weaken" and "weakly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "weaken" or "weakly" show up more?
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 "weaken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "weakly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #283,229 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "weaken" and "weakly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "weaken vs Whalen". 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 #283,229 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.