subtly
/ˈsʌt.li/
"subtly" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“subtly” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #19,709 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #19,709
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.
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 | subtly |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /ˈsʌt.li/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #19,709 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “subtly” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for subtly is 6 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈsʌt.li/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,709 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for subtly, with forms such as "sbutly", "ssubtly", and "subbtly". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "sully", "surly", "supply", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English sotilly; equivalent to subtle + -ly. The correct English form is subtly, spelled S-U-B-T-L-Y.
Definition
- 1With subtleness, in a subtle manner; with cleverness rather than brute force.
Etymology
From Middle English sotilly; equivalent to subtle + -ly.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: sbutly,ssubtly,subbtly,sublty,subtlly,subtlyy,subttly,subtyl,sutbly,usbtly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of subtly - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "subtly"?
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Using “subtly”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-U-B-T-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈsʌt.li/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sully” - see the side-by-side comparison. subtly vs sully
- 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.