severely
"severely" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“severely” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #6,097 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #6,097
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - In a severe manner.
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 | severely |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #6,097 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “severely” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for severely is 8 letters long, classified as an adverb. Corpus data places it at rank #6,097 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "In a severe manner.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for severely, with forms such as "esverely", "seevrely", and "seveerly". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "severity", "severe", "several", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From severe + -ly. The correct English form is severely, spelled S-E-V-E-R-E-L-Y.
Definition
- 1In a severe manner.
Etymology
From severe + -ly.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: esverely,seevrely,seveerly,severelly,severelyy,severeyl,severley,severrely,sevreely,sevverely,sseverely,sveerely
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of severely - 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 “severely”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-V-E-R-E-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “severity” - see the side-by-side comparison. severely vs severity
- 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.