painfully
/ˈpeɪnfəli/
"painfully" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“painfully” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,673 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #15,673
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In a painful manner; as if in pain.
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 | painfully |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈpeɪnfəli/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #15,673 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “painfully” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for painfully is 9 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈpeɪnfəli/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,673 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for painfully, with forms such as "apinfully", "paifnully", and "painffully". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "painful", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English peinfully, paynefully, equivalent to painful + -ly. The correct English form is painfully, spelled P-A-I-N-F-U-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a painful manner; as if in pain.
- 2Badly; poorly.
Etymology
From Middle English peinfully, paynefully, equivalent to painful + -ly.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apinfully,paifnully,painffully,painfluly,painfullyy,painfuly,painfulyl,painnfully,painuflly,panifully,pianfully,ppainfully
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of painfully - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “painfully”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is P-A-I-N-F-U-L-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈpeɪnfəli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “painful” - see the side-by-side comparison. painfully vs painful
- 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.