difficultly

adv

"difficultly" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“difficultly” is uncommon English (frequency #98,027 among 3,470 “D” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#98,027
frequency rank, English
3,470
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - With difficulty; not easily.

Corpus desk

Index EN-difficultly · difficultly · English

difficultly · rank #98,027 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #98,027
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,470
  • PHOTO-FINISH diclofenac

Nearest frequency peer: diclofenac (-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 “difficultly”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for difficultly
PropertyValue
Headworddifficultly
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdverb
Letters11
Frequency rank#98,027
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “difficultly” 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).difficultlyfalls in this rarity band:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “diclofenac” (#98,026), “Diggins” (#98,028), “diarrheal” (#98,025). Among 3,470 “D” headwords, “difficultly” is #98,027. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

difficultly is uncommon English at frequency #98,027 among 3,470 “D” headwords, classed as anadverb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "With difficulty; not easily.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for difficultly in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Etymologically, the entry records: From difficult + -ly. The correct English form is difficultly, spelled D-I-F-F-I-C-U-L-T-L-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    With difficulty; not easily.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how difficultly appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. In fact, we regard these efforts as insults on our understanding, and to such the pride of man is very difficultly brought to submit.

Etymology

From difficult + -ly.

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 "difficultly"?
"difficultly" is spelled D-I-F-F-I-C-U-L-T-L-Y.
What does "difficultly" mean?
As an adverb, "difficultly" means: With difficulty; not easily.
What is the origin of the word "difficultly"?
From difficult + -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 "difficultly", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list