Which to use
“amaze” is a verb and “amazed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,572
- “amaze” frequency rank
- #8,115
- “amazed” frequency rank
- 30687
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | amaze | amazed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To fill (someone) with surprise and wonder; to astonish, to astound, to surprise. | Astonished or confounded with fear, surprise, or wonder; greatly surprised (often with ensuing adpositions e.g. at, with, or by). |
Where the eye mixes amaze and amazed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. amaze runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against amazed's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between amaze and amazed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: amaze is /əˈmeɪz/ while amazed is /əˈmeɪzd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “amaze” sits inside “amazed”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
amaze is recorded at frequency rank #22,572, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈmeɪz/. amazed is at rank #8,115, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈmeɪzd/.
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 30687, this pair ranks #352,459 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of amaze vs amazed
Shared letters: aemz. Private to "amaze": -. Private to "amazed": d.
"amaze" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "amazed" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "amaze" for "amazed" ever safe?
Which is more common, "amaze" or "amazed"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "amaze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "amazed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #352,459 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "amaze" and "amazed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Amari vs amaze". 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 #352,459 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.