accessedvsaccessesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,381
“accessed” frequency rank
#42,508
“accesses” frequency rank
50889
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accessed accesses
Definition simple past and past participle of access plural of access

Where the eye mixes accessed and accesses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
accessed
8 ch
accesses

Visual trap between accessed and accesses

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: accessed is /ˈæksɛst/ while accesses is /ˈæksɛsɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “accessed” becomes s in “accesses”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50889, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accessed is recorded at frequency rank #8,381, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈæksɛst/. accesses is at rank #42,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈæksɛsɪz/.

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 50889, this pair ranks #170,276 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of accessed vs accesses

Shared letters: aces. Private to "accessed": d. Private to "accesses": -.

"accessed" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "accesses" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accessedaccesed · accesesd · accessde · accessedd · accsesed · acecssed · acessed · cacessed
  • accessesacceses · accesess · accessess · accessse · accseses · acecsses · acesses · cacesses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "accessed" and "accesses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "accessed" is a verb and "accesses" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "accessed" vs "accesses" - which ranks higher?
"accessed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,381 in our English list, against #42,508 for "accesses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "accessed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "accesses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,276 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accessed" and "accesses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accesses vs assesses". 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 #170,276 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list