Which to use
“acquittal” is a noun and “acquitted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,354
- “acquittal” frequency rank
- #16,170
- “acquitted” frequency rank
- 43524
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | acquittal | acquitted |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of fulfilling the duties (of a given role, obligation etc.). | simple past and past participle of acquit |
Where the eye mixes acquittal and acquitted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between acquittal and acquitted
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acquittal is /əˈkwɪ.t(ə)l/ while acquitted is /əˈkwɪtɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43524, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
acquittal is recorded at frequency rank #27,354, classified as anoun, pronounced /əˈkwɪ.t(ə)l/. acquitted is at rank #16,170, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈkwɪtɪd/.
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 43524, this pair ranks #239,215 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of acquittal vs acquitted
Shared letters: aciqtu. Private to "acquittal": l. Private to "acquitted": de.
"acquittal" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVC · "acquitted" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "acquittal" for "acquitted" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "acquittal" or "acquitted" show up more?
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 "acquittal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "acquitted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #239,215 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "acquittal" and "acquitted" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acquainted vs acquitted". 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 #239,215 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.