Which to use
“agitate” and “agitated” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,602
- “agitate” frequency rank
- #18,234
- “agitated” frequency rank
- 62836
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | agitate | agitated |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To disturb or excite; to perturb or stir up (a person). | simple past and past participle of agitate |
Where the eye mixes agitate and agitated
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between agitate and agitated
A purely visual mix-up. agitate (/ˈæ.d͡ʒɪ.teɪt/) and agitated (/ˈæd͡ʒɪteɪtɪd/) 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) - “agitate” sits inside “agitated”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
agitate is recorded at frequency rank #44,602, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈæ.d͡ʒɪ.teɪt/. agitated is at rank #18,234, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈæd͡ʒɪteɪtɪd/.
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 62836, this pair ranks #86,272 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of agitate vs agitated
Shared letters: aegit. Private to "agitate": -. Private to "agitated": d.
"agitate" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV · "agitated" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "agitate" for "agitated" ever safe?
Which is more common, "agitate" or "agitated"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "agitate" and "agitated" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "agitate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agitated" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,272 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "agitate" and "agitated" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agitate vs agitator". 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 #86,272 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.