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I found a page in Japanese with title
"[世界でもっとも汚染された10の都市](http://gigazine.net/news/20070518_world_dirtiest_cities/)".
Having encountered the phrase 「もっとも」 for the first time, I looked it up on
WWWJDIC and found two entries:

> 尤も 【もっとも】 (adj-na,adv,conj,n) quite right; plausible; natural; but then;
> although;
>
> 最も 【もっとも】 (adv) most; extremely;

Since the page is about world's dirtiest cities, I assumed that the もっとも used
in the page title is the second one 最も that means "most, extremely". However,
should I have not known what the page is about, I think I would have not known
which of the two もっとも is the one used in the title since both of them can be
used an adverb. Since WWWJDIC example sentence for 尤も is using it as a noun, I
tried to look for sample sentences that use 尤も as an adverb with not much
luck.

Are there scenarios where 尤も is commonly used as an adverb? If it's rare, is
it safe to assume that if もっとも is used as an adverb in a sentence, it is most
probably 最も, otherwise if it's not used as an adverb it is most probably 尤も?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-18T15:02:11.293
2733
2019-08-28T09:37:16.930
2020-06-17T08:18:27.500
-1
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question
word-choice usage adverbs homophonic-kanji
もっとも: distinguishing between 尤も and 最も
Ignoring the difference in kanji, there are three common meanings of もっとも.

(1) (adverb) most  
(2) (na-adjective) reasonable  
(3) (conjunction) but, however

When written in kanji, 1 is 最も
([Daijirin](http://www.excite.co.jp/dictionary/japanese/?search=%E3%82%82%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82&match=beginswith&itemid=DJR_moxtutomo_-020)
and
[Daijisen](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/219473/m0u/%E3%82%82%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82/))
and 2 and 3 are 尤も
([Daijirin](http://www.excite.co.jp/dictionary/japanese/?search=%E3%82%82%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82&match=beginswith&itemid=DJR_moxtutomo_-010)
and
[Daijisen](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/leaf/jn2/219472/m0u/%E3%82%82%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82/)).
There was an adverb もっとも which meant “undoubtedly” and “at all” and was
written as 尤も, but this usage is archaic.

So, the answer to your question

> is it safe to assume that if もっとも is used as an adverb in a sentence, it is
> most probably 最も, otherwise if it's not used as an adverb it is most
> probably 尤も?

is yes, but note that 尤も has two different meanings (2 and 3).
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-18T15:40:43.283
2735
2014-12-19T05:07:26.713
2014-12-19T05:07:26.713
15
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answer