sympathetically
/sɪmpəˈθɛtɪk(ə)li/
"sympathetically" is a 15-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“sympathetically” is uncommon English (frequency #52,663 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,663
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Owing to or showing evidence of sympathy, or affinity; happening through or demonstrating correspondences, whether occult or physiological.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | sympathetically |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | /sɪmpəˈθɛtɪk(ə)li/ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Frequency rank | #52,663 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sympathetically” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
sympathetically is uncommon English at frequency #52,663 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anadverb, transcribed /sɪmpəˈθɛtɪk(ə)li/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for sympathetically, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From sympathetical + -ly. The correct English form is sympathetically, spelled S-Y-M-P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C-A-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Owing to or showing evidence of sympathy, or affinity; happening through or demonstrating correspondences, whether occult or physiological.
- 2In a manner which demonstrates a sharing in the feelings of others; compassionately.
Etymology
From sympathetical + -ly.
This word in other languages
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 "sympathetically"?
What does "sympathetically" mean?
How do you pronounce "sympathetically"?
What is the origin of the word "sympathetically"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sympathetically”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-Y-M-P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C-A-L-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɪmpəˈθɛtɪk(ə)li/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.