Which to use
“alter” and “altered” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,540
- “alter” frequency rank
- #6,861
- “altered” frequency rank
- 13401
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | alter | altered |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To change the form or structure of. | simple past and past participle of alter |
Where the eye mixes alter and altered
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between alter and altered
A purely visual mix-up. alter (/ˈɒl.tə/) and altered (/ˈɔːl.təd/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “alter” sits inside “altered”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13401, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
alter is recorded at frequency rank #6,540, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɒl.tə/. altered is at rank #6,861, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈɔːl.təd/.
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 13401, this pair ranks #476,035 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of alter vs altered
Shared letters: aelrt. Private to "alter": -. Private to "altered": d.
"alter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "altered" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "alter" and "altered" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "alter" or "altered"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "alter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "altered" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #476,035 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "alter" and "altered" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alter vs althea". 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 #476,035 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.