selfishly
"selfishly" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“selfishly” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #45,076 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #45,076
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 15
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In a selfish manner; with regard to private interest only or chiefly.
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 | selfishly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #45,076 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “selfishly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for selfishly is 9 letters long, classified as an adverb. Corpus data places it at rank #45,076 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "In a selfish manner; with regard to private interest only or chiefly.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for selfishly, with forms such as "eslfishly", "seflishly", and "selffishly". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "selfish", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From selfish + -ly. The correct English form is selfishly, spelled S-E-L-F-I-S-H-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a selfish manner; with regard to private interest only or chiefly.
Etymology
From selfish + -ly.
Antonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eslfishly,seflishly,selffishly,selfihsly,selfishhly,selfishlly,selfishlyy,selfishyl,selfislhy,selfisshly,selfsihly,selifshly,sellfishly,slefishly,sselfishly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of selfishly - 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 “selfishly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-L-F-I-S-H-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “selfish” - see the side-by-side comparison. selfishly vs selfish
- 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.