There is a ton of confusion revolving around the phrases most important and most importantly. You might notice that some people always say most importantly while others only say most important.

The difference between these two short phrases has to do with the context of what you are speaking about. Most importantly is an adverb and most important is an adjective. The usage will depend on what you are trying to get across in your message.

Most important is a phrase that is used to emphasize that something is much better than other things. In the Oxford Dictionary, this phrase is said to be an adjective.

When you are considering using this version of the phrase, say it out loud with the whole sentence to make sure it sounds grammatically correct.

For example, if you were to say, “most important, the neighbors didn’t mind the loud music we played,” it doesn’t sound grammatically correct.

Examples

You aren’t hurt, and that’s what is most important.

The most important thing is that you understand the material.

Empathy is considered one of the most important leadership skills.

The most important thing to remember is your family loves you.

Most importantly is used to describe something that is above or beyond everything else. This phrase is said to be an adverb.

You will see this phrase used a lot less frequently than most important. However, one really common way to see this phrase used is as “but most importantly”. If you use the phrase like this, you are allowed to start a sentence with the word “but” and still be grammatically correct.

ExamplesMost importantly, the neighbors didn’t mind the loud music we played.

When something like that happens, everyone will benefit, but most importantly you.

Most importantly, how can you be sure she’s not lying to you?

But most importantly, you learned a lesson from all of this.

The same rules apply to more important and more importantly. More important is an adjective and more importantly is an adverb.

It can be hard to determine whether you should be using “most important” or “most importantly” in your sentence. The context that you are using will play a huge role in which is proper to use.

These phrases can’t really be used in place of each other because the sentence won’t make any sense because one is an adverb and the other is an adjective.