happily
/ˈhæp.ɪ.li/
"happily" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“happily” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,970 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #5,970
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In a happy or cheerful manner; with happiness.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | happily |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈhæp.ɪ.li/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #5,970 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “happily” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for happily is 7 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhæp.ɪ.li/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,970 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for happily, with forms such as "ahppily", "hapily", and "hapiply". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "happy", "hastily", "happier", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English happily, happyly, happyliche, happylyche, equivalent to happy + -ly. The correct English form is happily, spelled H-A-P-P-I-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a happy or cheerful manner; with happiness.
- 2By good chance; fortunately, successfully.
- 3With good will; in all happiness; willingly.
- 4By chance; perhaps.
Etymology
From Middle English happily, happyly, happyliche, happylyche, equivalent to happy + -ly.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ahppily,hapily,hapiply,happilly,happilyy,happiyl,happliy,hhappily,hpapily
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of happily - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
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Using “happily”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-A-P-P-I-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhæp.ɪ.li/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “happy” - see the side-by-side comparison. happily vs happy
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.