Revised as of19 Jan 2023 NOTE: While more and most are definitely part of this pair of word confusions, I’m going to ignore them in examining important and importantly. It’s just too wordy! This was a fascinating — and confusing — bit of research with dictionaries and grammarians having opposing arguments on the difference between important and importantly. Whew. Some argued that important was all wrong while others argued the reverse. The Oxford Dictionary and Merriam-Webster did, however, both agree that the combined phrase(s) — more/most important and more/most importantly — were sentential, i.e., the phrase affected the whole sentence. Much like frankly or evidently (as sentential adverbs) set the “mood” for each sentence: “Frankly, my dear, I just don’t give a damn,” or “Evidently, the cat got into the cream”. Context is Key As you’ll see in the examples below, the choice of using either more/most important or more/most importantly depends upon the construction and meaning of the sentence in which you intend to use them. Only if you’re a pompous blowhard do you say things importantly. Then, again. . . .”he spoke important” doesn’t do it for me. Do note that the phrase more importantly is often used […]