contrarily

adv

"contrarily" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“contrarily” is uncommon English (frequency #95,850 among 5,599 “C” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#95,850
frequency rank, English
5,599
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a contrary manner; in opposite ways or directions.

Corpus desk

Index EN-contrarily · contrarily · English

contrarily · rank #95,850 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #95,850
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,599
  • PHOTO-FINISH contracture

Nearest frequency peer: contracture (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Long-tail ranks near “contrarily”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “contrarily” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for contrarily
PropertyValue
Headwordcontrarily
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdverb
Letters10
Frequency rank#95,850
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “contrarily” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).contrarilyfalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Rare peers in the same band: “contracture” (#95,849), “conurbation” (#95,851), “Coningsby” (#95,847). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “contrarily” is #95,850. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

contrarily is uncommon English at frequency #95,850 among 5,599 “C” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In a contrary manner; in opposite ways or directions.".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for contrarily, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Etymologically, the entry records: From contrary + -ly. The correct English form is contrarily, spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-R-I-L-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    In a contrary manner; in opposite ways or directions.

Etymology

From contrary + -ly.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "contrarily"?
"contrarily" is spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-R-I-L-Y.
What does "contrarily" mean?
As an adverb, "contrarily" means: In a contrary manner; in opposite ways or directions.
What is the origin of the word "contrarily"?
From contrary + -ly. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "contrarily", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list