Which to use
“accrue” and “accrued” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,264
- “accrue” frequency rank
- #24,074
- “accrued” frequency rank
- 56338
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | accrue | accrued |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To increase, to rise | simple past and past participle of accrue |
Where the eye mixes accrue and accrued
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. accrue runs 6 letters (VCCCVV) against accrued's 7 (VCCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: accrue vs accrued
A purely visual mix-up. accrue (/əˈkɹuː/) 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 extra letter(s) - “accrue” sits inside “accrued”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
accrue is recorded at frequency rank #32,264, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈkɹuː/. 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 56338, this pair ranks #127,014 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of accrue vs accrued
Shared letters: aceru. Private to "accrue": -. Private to "accrued": d.
"accrue" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV · "accrued" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "accrue" and "accrued" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "accrue" or "accrued"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "accrue" 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 #127,014 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "accrue" and "accrued" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accrued 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 #127,014 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.