usedvswindowsTell them apart

Quick tell: used is a verb, windows is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“used” is a verb and “windows” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,746
“used” frequency rank
#2,937
“windows” frequency rank
22683
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature used windows
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs use Plural des Substantivs window

Letter map: used vs windows

Shared letters muted; letters that set used and windows apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

4 ch
used
7 ch
windows

Grammar separator: used vs windows

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: used is averb and windowsanoun. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22683, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

used is recorded at frequency rank #19,746, classified as averb, pronounced […]. windows is at rank #2,937, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 22683, this pair ranks #1,871,068 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of used vs windows

Shared letters: ds. Private to "used": eu. Private to "windows": inow.

"used" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "windows" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • usedsued · uesd · usde · usedd · ussed
  • windowsiwndows · widnows · winddows · windosw · windowss · windowws · windwos · winndows

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "used" and "windows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "used" is a verb and "windows" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "used" or "windows" show up more?
"windows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,937 in our German list, against #19,746 for "used". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "used" and "windows".

  • Full dictionary entry for "used" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "windows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,871,068 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "used" and "windows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs used". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,871,068 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list