accordedvsaccruedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“accorded” and “accrued” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,101
“accorded” frequency rank
#24,074
“accrued” frequency rank
52175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accorded accrued
Definition simple past and past participle of accord simple past and past participle of accrue

Where the eye mixes accorded and accrued

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. accorded runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVC) against accrued's 7 (VCCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
accorded
7 ch
accrued

Look-alike desk: accorded vs accrued

A purely visual mix-up. accorded (/əˈkɔɹdɪd/) and accrued (/əˈkɹuːd/) 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 52175, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accorded is recorded at frequency rank #28,101, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈkɔɹdɪd/. accrued is at rank #24,074, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈkɹuːd/.

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 52175, this pair ranks #159,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of accorded vs accrued

Shared letters: acder. Private to "accorded": o. Private to "accrued": u.

"accorded" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "accrued" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accorded ← accodred · accordde · accordded · accordedd · accoredd · accorrded · accroded · acocrded
  • accrued ← accreud · accrrued · accrude · accruedd · accured · acrcued · acrued · cacrued

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "accorded" for "accrued" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/əˈkɔɹdɪd/ versus /əˈkɹuːd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "accorded" or "accrued"?
"accrued" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,074 in our English list, against #28,101 for "accorded". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "accorded" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "accrued" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,299 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accorded" and "accrued" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accorded vs accursed". 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 #159,299 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