Which to use
“abides” and “aided” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,748
- “abides” frequency rank
- #10,481
- “aided” frequency rank
- 60229
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | abides | aided |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of abide | simple past and past participle of aid |
Where the eye mixes abides and aided
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses abides with aided
A purely visual mix-up. abides (/əˈbaɪds/) and aided (/ˈeɪ.dɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
abides is recorded at frequency rank #49,748, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈbaɪds/. aided is at rank #10,481, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈeɪ.dɪd/.
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 60229, this pair ranks #101,479 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of abides vs aided
Shared letters: adei. Private to "abides": bs. Private to "aided": -.
"abides" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC · "aided" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "abides" for "aided" ever safe?
Frequency check: "abides" vs "aided" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "abides" and "aided" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "abides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aided" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #101,479 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "abides" and "aided" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abides vs asides". 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 #101,479 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.