willfully
"willfully" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“willfully” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #26,660 in English word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #26,660
- frequency rank, English
- 9
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - US standard spelling of wilfully.
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 | willfully |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #26,660 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “willfully” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for willfully is 9 letters long, classified as an adverb. Corpus data places it at rank #26,660 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "US standard spelling of wilfully.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for willfully, with forms such as "iwllfully", "wilflully", and "willffully". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "willful", "wilfully", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From willful + -ly. The correct English form is willfully, spelled W-I-L-L-F-U-L-L-Y.
Definition
- 1US standard spelling of wilfully.
Etymology
From willful + -ly.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: iwllfully,wilflully,willffully,willfluly,willfullyy,willfuly,willfulyl,willuflly,wlilfully,wwillfully
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of willfully - 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 “willfully”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is W-I-L-L-F-U-L-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “willful” - see the side-by-side comparison. willfully vs willful
- 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.